Ellen L. Goddard *1, Jonathan Millett 1, Simon Smart 2 & Kevin Walker 3
1 Geography and Environment, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU; e.goddard@lboro.ac.uk 2 Centre of Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster
3 Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland
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. The aim of this study is to investigate and compare S. purpurea’scurrent 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.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.