can exotic tree/shrub species be an excellent foundation species that facilitate the restoration of an ecosystem?are there such data? if there are please send me.
Key stone species are those which maintain structure and organization of a community. I don't think that exotic trees or shrubs can serve as keystone species for a plant community.
Of course an exotic tree or a shrub can be a keystone species. Indeed, in detriment of some native species... The tree Prosopis juliflora is an example. This species was introduced in the Brazilian Caatinga, a very arid environment. In the dry season, Prosopis juliflora is almost the unique species which stay green, working as a key species for many degrees of the food web. But it's not native and the consequences is the alteration of the native ecosystem, which have impredictable consequences...
dear Dr Newton,
there are some general comments that say trees/shrubs generally improve habitat and hence, specially in the tropics, they are keystone organisms very much important in ecological restoration. my question is; does it hold true for all tree/shrubs and most importantly exotic ones?
In initial phase any exotic species is not supposed to be a key stone species.
Solanum tuberosum, a Peruvian species that was key to the survival of many European peoples during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the occurrence of a fungus on the potato plantations led to more than one million people to death.
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