Assessment of the current invasive situation of alien plants in semi-arid area of Northeast China
Alien invasive plants have been found in the semi-arid region of Northeast China for a long time,but the overall invasion situation is rarely reported.In this study,we established a database of alien invasive plants in the semi-arid area of Northeast China through field investigation,specimen collection,research of specimen online in-formation platform and literature.The results showed that there were 34 species of alien invasive plants belonging to 26 genera and 10 families in the semi-arid area of Northeast China,among which the Composite family had the lar-gest number of richness,with 9 genera(34.6%)and 11 species(32.4%).There were 15 species(44.1%)in 11 genera(42.3%)of Legumes,Solanaceae and Gramineae.In all the alien invasive plants,33 species were herba-ceous plants,being overwhelmingly dominant(97.1%).There were both 7 species of countrywide invasive plants with invasive grade 1 and 2,each accounting for 20.6%of the total.The number of species with invasive grade 4 was the largest,17 species,accounting for 50%of the total.The invasive plants originated in North America and Europe was the most,accounting for 64.7%,while those from South America,Asia and Africa accounted for 35.3%.Totally,44.1%of all the invasive alien plants were intentionally introduced,while 55.9%were uninten-tionally introduced.In the semi-arid area of Northeast China,81.3%of the counties(cities)had the distribution of alien invasive plants,and the invasion situation was very serious.
semi-arid region of Northeast Chinaalien invasive plantinvasion gradenative habitatdistribution pattern