ORIGINAL PAPER
The widespread and overlooked replacement of Spartina
maritima by non-indigenous S. anglica and S. townsendii
in north-western Adriatic saltmarshes
Joanne X. W. Wong
.
Federica Costantini
.
Nicola Merloni
.
Lorenzo Savelli
.
Danny Geelen
.
Laura Airoldi
Received: 5 July 2017 / Accepted: 19 December 2017 / Published online: 16 February 2018
Ó Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Non-native Spartina spp. have invaded
many coastal saltmarshes worldwide. Introduced
Spartina may cause problems like displacement of
native vegetation and hybridisation with native
species, leading to changes to relevant ecosystem
services and saltmarsh geomorphology. Here we
report the extensive and so far overlooked replacement
of the native Spartina maritima by non-native S.
anglica and S. townsendii along 400 km of the coast of
the north-western Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea).
We analysed the distribution of both native and non-
native Spartina spp. along the six main saltmarsh areas
in the region, and produced maps of their presence by
using a combination of genetic tools, morphological
analysis and geotagged photographs, complemented
with field observations. We also reviewed historical
herbaria from the region to explore when the first non-
native introductions could have occured. We found
that S. anglica and S. townsendii are unexpectedly
widespread, having established along the whole study
region, in one lagoon totally replacing the local native
species. Its introduction happened virtually unnoticed,
and misidentified herbarium specimens date back as
early as 1987. We discuss the ecological implications
of this overlooked extensive replacement, and the need
for a comprehensive assessment of the status of the
saltmarshes in this region, both to protect the few
Electronic supplementary material The online version of
this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1654-3) con-
tains supplementary material, which is available to authorized
users.
J. X. W. Wong Á F. Costantini Á L. Savelli Á
L. Airoldi (&)
Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche ed
Ambientali (BiGeA) & Centro Interdipartimentale di
Ricerca per le Scienze Ambientali (CIRSA), Alma Mater
Studiorum – Universita
`
di Bologna, Via S. Alberto 163,
48123 Ravenna, Italy
e-mail: laura.airoldi@unibo.it
J. X. W. Wong
e-mail: joannexiao.wong@unibo.it
F. Costantini
e-mail: federica.costantini@unibo.it
J. X. W. Wong
Department of Biology, Marine Biology, Ghent
University, Krijgslaan, 281, S8, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
F. Costantini Á L. Airoldi
CoNISMa, Piazzale Flaminio 9, 00196 Rome, Italy
N. Merloni
Liceo Scientifico A. Oriani, Via C. Battisti 2,
48121 Ravenna, Italy
D. Geelen
Department of Plant Production, Ghent University,
Coupure Links 653 Bl. A, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
123
Biol Invasions (2018) 20:1687–1702
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1654-3
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