Rapid upwards spread of non-native plants in mountains across continents.

High-elevation ecosystems are among the few ecosystems worldwide that are not yet heavily invaded by non-native plants. This is expected to change as species expand their range limits upwards to fill their climatic niches and respond to ongoing anthropogenic disturbances. Yet, whether and how quickly these changes are happening has only been assessed in a few isolated cases. Starting in 2007, we conducted repeated surveys of non-native plant distributions along mountain roads in 11 regions from 5 continents. We show that over a 5- to 10-year period, the number of non-native species increased on average by approximately 16% per decade across regions. The direction and magnitude of upper range limit shifts depended on elevation across all regions. Supported by a null-model approach accounting for range changes expected by chance alone, we found greater than expected upward shifts at lower/mid elevations in at least seven regions. After accounting for elevation dependence, significant average upward shifts were detected in a further three regions (revealing evidence for upward shifts in 10 of 11 regions). Together, our results show that mountain environments are becoming increasingly exposed to biological invasions, emphasizing the need to monitor and prevent potential biosecurity issues emerging in high-elevation ecosystems.

Partial nitritation ANAMMOX in submerged attached growth bioreactors with smart aeration at 20 °C.

Submerged attached growth bioreactors (SAGBs) were operated at 20 °C for 30 weeks in smart-aerated, partial nitritation ANAMMOX mode and in a timer-controlled, cyclic aeration mode. The smart-aerated SAGBs removed 48-53% of total nitrogen (TN) compared to 45% for SAGBs with timed aeration. Low dissolved oxygen concentrations and cyclic pH patterns in the smart-aerated SAGBs suggested conditions favorable to partial nitritation ANAMMOX and stoichiometrically-derived and numerically modeled estimations attributed 63-68% and 14-44% of TN removal to partial nitritation ANAMMOX in these bioreactors, respectively. Ammonia removals of 36-67% in the smart-aerated SAGBs, with measured oxygen and organic carbon limitations, further suggest partial nitritation ANAMMOX. The smart-aerated SAGBs required substantially less aeration to achieve TN removals similar to SAGBs with timer-controlled aeration. Genomic DNA testing confirmed that the dominant ANAMMOX seed bacteria, received from a treatment plant utilizing the DEMON® sidestream deammonification process, was a Candidatus Brocadia sp. (of the Planctomycetales order). The DNA from these bacteria was also present in the SAGBs at the conclusion of the study providing evidence for attached growth and limited biomass washout.