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Beyond Global Models: Mapping the Spatially Contingent Relationship Between Soil Sand Content and Woody Invasion
Beatriz Sosa1, David Romero2, José Carlos Guerrero1
1Instituto de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, Montevideo 11400, Uruguay.
Life (Basel, Switzerland)
|May 27, 2026
Summary
Local environmental factors, not global models, drive invasive species patterns in riparian forests. Spatial analysis reveals that soil sand content
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Environmental Science
- Invasive Species Biology
Background:
- Riparian ecosystems face threats from altered hydrology and invasive species.
- The influence of local environmental heterogeneity on invasion dynamics is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test if invasion patterns are spatially structured and better explained by local factors than global models.
- To analyze the relationship between soil sand content and the abundance of *Gleditsia triacanthos* (honey locust) in a Uruguayan riparian forest.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) for initial analysis.
- Employed spatially explicit analyses to examine local variations in the relationship between soil sand content and *G. triacanthos* abundance.
Main Results:
- GLMM showed no significant global relationship between soil sand content and *G. triacanthos* abundance.
- Spatially explicit analysis revealed context-dependent relationships: positive in low sand areas, negative in high sand areas, and inconsistent in intermediate zones.
Conclusions:
- Invasion patterns are spatially contingent and influenced by local processes.
- Relying solely on global statistical models can misinterpret invasion drivers in heterogeneous systems.
- Understanding invasive species requires considering scale-dependent mechanisms and spatial structure.
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