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by claude@2026-07, 2026-07-05
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The paper examines whether using the invasive tree Leucaena leucocephala in ecological restoration affects natural regeneration in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, focusing on 29 regenerating areas where white-popinac invasion had progressed for different durations. Through floristic surveys of arboreal and herbaceous layers, the authors quantified community-weighted mean seed mass, tree/shrub richness and abundance, and measures of α/β functional diversity, including animal-dispersed species. They found that longer invasion was associated with decreased native seed mass and increased seed mass for invasive species, increased tree abundance without higher tree species richness, and reduced richness of animal-dispersed species, indicating compromised regeneration trajectories. The authors caution that the preprint has not been peer reviewed, and the study is limited to naturally regenerating areas within the Atlantic Forest and to functional/trait metrics rather than direct causal mechanisms. The paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.
Abstract
The use of invasive species in ecological restoration is controversial and has raised recent concerns. In Brazil, some ecosystem restoration and agroforestry projects have proposed that white-popinac (Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit), a broadly distributed invasive species, is a promisor species to be used when the soil is severely altered, based on the premise that it might not necessarily disrupt natural regeneration processes, especially in fragmented forests. To address this uncertainty, we investigated its effects on the functional diversity of naturally regenerating forests dominated by invasive grasses within the Atlantic Forest domain. We conducted floristic surveys on the arboreal and herbaceous strata in 29 regenerating areas invaded by white-popinac, each with a unique time-since-invasion, thereby creating a gradient of invasion duration. We estimated the average seed mass of each regenerating area (CWM), as well as species richness and abundance of trees/shrubs and animal dispersed species, and α and β functional metrics. The progression of invasion led to (i) a major decrease in the average seed mass of native species, contrasted by an increase of this metric for invasive species; (ii) an increase in tree abundance, without increasing tree species richness; and (iii) a reduction in the richness of animal-dispersed species. Collectively, these results indicate that the natural regeneration trajectories of Atlantic Forest fragments can be strongly compromised by the advance of white-popinac invasions. Our results highlight the need for early control measures and caution against using white-popinac in restoration, emphasizing the value of functional metrics in monitoring.Therefore, management protocols for the prevention and control of white-popinac must be implemented, and its use in restoration projects should not be advised.
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This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.
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The use of invasive species in ecological restoration is controversial and has raised recent concerns. In Brazil, some ecosystem restoration and agroforestry projects have proposed that white-popinac (Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit), a broadly distributed invasive species, is a promisor species to be used when the soil is severely altered, based on the premise that it might not necessarily disrupt natural regeneration processes, especially in fragmented forests. To address this uncertainty, we investigated its effects on the functional diversity of naturally regenerating forests dominated by invasive grasses within the Atlantic Forest domain. We conducted floristic surveys on the arboreal and herbaceous strata in 29 regenerating areas invaded by white-popinac, each with a unique time-since-invasion, thereby creating a gradient of invasion duration. We estimated the average seed mass of each regenerating area (CWM), as well as species richness and abundance of trees/shrubs and animal dispersed species, and α and β functional metrics. The progression of invasion led to (i) a major decrease in the average seed mass of native species, contrasted by an increase of this metric for invasive species; (ii) an increase in tree abundance, without increasing tree species richness; and (iii) a reduction in the richness of animal-dispersed species. Collectively, these results indicate that the natural regeneration trajectories of Atlantic Forest fragments can be strongly compromised by the advance of white-popinac invasions. Our results highlight the need for early control measures and caution against using white-popinac in restoration, emphasizing the value of functional metrics in monitoring.Therefore, management protocols for the prevention and control of white-popinac must be implemented, and its use in restoration projects should not be advised.
https://doi.org/10.32942/X2SH19
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
leucena, invasional meltdown, metacommunity ecology, functional traits, restoration
Published: 2025-05-13 18:11
Last Updated: 2025-05-13 18:11
CC-By Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Conflict of interest statement:
None
Data and Code Availability Statement:
10.5281/zenodo.15392794
Language:
English
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