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native species introduced into Italy since 1500 AD Determinants of non-native species richness
(Celesti-Grapow et al. 2009). According to their
current establishment status, 49 taxa were classified The number of total non-native and established non-
as casuals, while the remaining 105 are established. native species on each island was found to vary
This last group of 105 established taxa contains only greatly, ranging from zero to 56 species and from zero
27 taxa that are currently invasive in at least one of the to 45 species, respectively.
37 islands, thus confirming that only a small subset of The regression tree for total non-native species
naturalized species have the capacity to spread over richness indicated that the two most important
considerable distances from the site in which they predictor variables were related to human activities
were introduced (Pys ˇek et al. 2004). The majority of (Fig. 2a). The first split clearly separated the two
the 154 non-native species recorded (99, 64.3 %) have islands subjected to the highest degree of tourist
been introduced as ornamental plants. pressure (Capri and Ischia) according to the number of
A
B
Fig. 2 a,b Regression tree models showing the determinants of respectively; the cross-validated error was 0.41862 and 0.41862
residuals between the number of non-native species (a) and the respectively. Artificial areas = percentage of the area of
number of established non-native species (b) and area on the 37 each island occupied by artificial surfaces; Closest island
small Italian islands. Each node is characterized by the split distance = distance from nearest island; Tourism = number
variable and its split value, the response variable mean (Avg) of ferries that reach each island on the same day at the height
and the number of islands assigned to that node (N). The tree of summer (15 July); Volcanic = percentage of volcanic
explained 78.18 and 75.52 % of the variation in the response substratum
variable of the non-native and established non-native species,
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