Global Conservation Faces New Dilemma as Native Plants Decline at Home but Thrive Abroad.

As global ecosystems shift under the pressures of climate change and human activity, conservationists face a new and unexpected challenge: how to address plant species that are thriving outside their native environments while declining where they originally evolved.

A recent study published in New Phytologist and conducted by researchers from the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig University, and the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research—UFZ, has uncovered a surprising trend. According to the research, more than 25% of the world’s naturalized plant species—those that have established stable populations outside their native range—are considered threatened within parts of their original habitats.

Lead author Dr. Ingmar Staude of iDiv and Leipzig University reflected on the findings: “I initially assumed that species expanding into non-native regions were clear beneficiaries of range growth. But our study shows that many of these same species are simultaneously losing ground in their native areas, making the conservation picture far more complex.”

The study's conclusions stem from a comprehensive global analysis that integrated Red Lists of vascular plants from 103 countries with data from the Global Naturalized Alien Flora (GloNAF) database. One striking case is Agave vera-cruz, a species classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as extinct in the wild—meaning it no longer exists in its natural Mexican habitat—yet it persists in numerous self-sustaining populations in other parts of the world.

While non-native species are often viewed through the lens of ecological harm or targeted for eradication, the study encourages a more nuanced assessment. It suggests that, under certain circumstances, these populations may hold conservation value, especially when original habitats have become uninhabitable.

The researchers advocate for a reassessment of the rigid separation between “native” and “non-native”

Source:https://phys.org/news/2025-05-home-pose.html

This is non-financial/medical advice and made using AI so could be wrong.