spillover

Adjacent land-use intensification facilitates plant invasions into indigenous shrubland fragments

Indigenous vegetation fragments in agricultural landscapes are vulnerable to creeping edge effects and stochastic extinctions on top of the effects of historic land use and disturbance which have already resulted in significant changes to baselines. Agricultural intensification can potentially increase these threats through spillover of nutrients, water, and weeds, especially in dryland ecosystems which are naturally low in nitrogen and soil moisture.