天博克罗地亚入口

Recently, the team of Associate Professor Li Xiaoqiong from the School of Forestry at our university published a paper titled “Non?native plantations: Plant invasion hotspots to multispecies bridgeheads” in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, a renowned journal in the field of ecology (a Cell Press journal). The first author of the paper is Li Xiaoqiong, and the corresponding author is Researcher Huang Wei from the Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Guangxi University is the primary affiliation for this paper.

Forestry serves as the cornerstone of ecological civilization construction, fulfilling the triple functions of an ecological barrier, a carbon sink reserve, and a green economic engine. Against the backdrop of intensifying global supply–demand imbalances in timber, exotic fast?growing tree plantations—exemplified by eucalyptus—cover less than 7% of China’s total plantation area yet contribute over 18% of the nation’s timber output, effectively alleviating the pressure of logging on natural forests. As China’s largest plantation province, Guangxi has over 40 million mu (approximately 2.67 million hectares) of eucalyptus plantations. While safeguarding national timber security, these plantations face ecological challenges such as biodiversity loss, soil fertility decline, and biological invasions. This paper points out that non?native plantations not only tend to become “hotspots” for exotic plant invasions but can also serve as “bridgeheads” for the invasion of multiple taxa, including pathogenic fungi, insects, and mammals. These alien species may further trigger a cascade effect of “invasion meltdown” through positive interspecific interactions among multiple species, accelerating each other’s colonization and spread, ultimately causing cascading and magnified ecological damage and biotic homogenization to surrounding natural ecosystems.

Schematic illustration of “invasion meltdown” caused by multiple alien species in planted forests

It is learned that this is the second paper published by this team in Trends in Ecology & Evolution in 2026.