Species invasions are increasing with the movement of goods and humans across the world. Invasions have been widely reported to have negative effects on native species. The purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) is a carnivorous plant which has leaves that form pitchers. These attract, trap and digest insects. S. purpurea is native to North America and has been introduced to peat bogs across Northern Europe over the past century. Each introduction is believed to be deliberate, with no known natural distribution between sites. Once introduced populations have been said to become invasive in the UK and Ireland. There have been relatively few studies on the function of S. purpurea outside of its native range, making its effect on native species relatively unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate and compare S. purpurea’s current spread across Northern Europe and North America. It is hypothesized that 1) European populations share similar climatic conditions with the native populations, and 2) European populations are closer to human settlements and access routes than populations in North America. In order to address these questions, species distribution models (MaxEnt) were built including climatic variables, land cover, and distances to major roads/cities for known populations.
Results/Conclusions
Preliminary results suggest that the introduced populations in Europe have a smaller range of climatic conditions to those in North America, but they generally sit within the same climatic niche. S. purpurea has a smaller range in temperature in European populations than in North American populations, and there is a lower average level of precipitation in the European populations. Comparisons of land cover suggest that the populations are however utilising similar habitats. Work is still being undertaken on other climatic variables and the distance to human settlements/access routes. Our initial results suggest that the climatic variables of European populations represent a subset of the range of North American populations, potentially revealing preferential conditions for S. purpurea due to the success of the species within sites in Europe. These results build on our understanding of S. purpurea in non-native habitats and expands our knowledge of dispersal restricted introduced species.