Lutz Eckstein is senior author of a paper showing that the invasive herb Lupinus polyphyllus significantly reduces the richness of vascular plants along valuable road verges in Sweden. The paper, which has recently been published open access in the journal Nordic Journal of Botany (https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/njb.04438), is led by Juliana Dániel-Ferreira (SLU Uppsala). The study was a cooperation between Karlstad University and SLU (Swedish Biodiversity Centre – CBM) and is partly based on data collected by Karola Knudsen during her Master thesis at KaU.
One interesting finding of the study was that even though the direction of the effect of Garden lupine on vascular plant diversity was similar in both studied areas in Sweden, the magnitude was strongly dependent on the preexisting communities. The study area in the west (Värmland, Örebro) hosted a lower proportion of competitive species typical for nutrient poor soils compared to the area in the east (Västmanland, Uppland) (Fig. 1). The authors conclude that invasion by L. polyphyllus is a serious threat to vascular plant communities but that the response is context dependent. Communities with high abundance of vulnerable and poor competitive plant species should be prioritized for eradication and control of the invasive.
