Share this post on:

Rved variation, combining mammal phylogenetic distinctiveness, biological and ecological elements.MethodsCategorization of alien mammals in South AfricaAlien species are grouped into five categories or Appendices (Data S1) depending on their invasion intensity ranging from Appendix 1 to Appendix five. Appendix 1 involves “species listed as prohibited alien species”, which is, all aliens introduced to South Africa that have been strongly detrimental owing to their high invasion intensity (“strong invaders”; Hufbauer and Torchin 2007; Kumschick et al. 2011). We referred to these species as “prohibited species”. In contrast, other introduced species categorized as Appendix 2 do not show so far any invasion ability and are as a result labeled as “species listed as permitted alien species” (“noninvasive aliens”). We referred to these species as “permitted species” as opposed to “prohibited species.” The third category, i.e., Appendix 3 labeled as “species listed as invasive species” incorporates all species which are invasive but whose invasion intensity and impacts are significantly less than these from the Appendix 1 (“weak invaders”; Hufbauer and Torchin 2007). We referred to this category as “invasive species.” Appendices 4 and five consist of, respectively, “species listed as recognized to be invasive elsewhere within the world” and “species listed as potentially invasive elsewhere in the globe.”Data collectionWe included in this study only species that are alien in South Africa and present in PanTHERIA database (Jones2014 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley Sons Ltd.K. Yessoufou et al.Evolutionary History PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21347021 and Mammalian Invasionet al. 2009). From this worldwide database, we retrieved 38 life-history variables characterizing the ecology, biology, and societal life of mammals (Table S1). Within the current checklist of alien mammals of South Africa, you can find 20 species listed in Appendix 1, eight in Appendix 2 and 68 in Appendix 3 (Table S1; Information S1). There’s no species listed in the moment in Appendix 4 and only 1 species is presently below Appendix five. For the purpose of data evaluation, we (+)-Viroallosecurinine web replaced the species Castor spp. listed below Appendix 1 with Castor canadensis for which data are obtainable in PanTHERIA. Also, all hybrids located in Appendices (e.g., Connochaetes gnou 9 C. taurinus taurinus) have been removed in the analysis as well as all species listed in Appendices but missing in the PanTHERIA database. We did not consist of the single species listed under Appendix 5. In total, alien mammals analyzed in this study incorporate: Appendix 1 (prohibited = 19 species), Appendix 2 (permitted = 7 species), and Appendix 3 (invasive = 51 species).Data analysisWe converted invasive status of all alien species into binary traits: “prohibited” (Appendix 1) versus nonprohibited (Appendices 2 + 3). We then tested for taxonomic selectivity in invasion intensity assessing whether there had been more or significantly less “prohibited” species in some taxa (households and orders) than expected by chance. For this objective, we estimated the proportion of prohibited species (observed proportion) in every family and order. If n may be the total quantity of prohibited species in the dataset, we generated from the dataset 1000 random assemblages of n species each. For each on the random assemblages, we calculated the proportion of prohibited species (random proportion). The significance with the distinction among the observed plus the imply of your 1000 random proportions was tested according to 95 self-confidence intervals.

Share this post on: