1. The significant portion of global terrestrial biodiversity harboured in the mountains is under increasing threat from various anthropogenic impacts. Protecting fragile mountain ecosystems requires understanding how these human disturbances affect biodiversity. As roads and railways are extended further into mountain ecosystems, understanding the long-term impacts of this infrastructure on community composition and diversity gains urgency.
2. We used railway corridors constructed across the mountainous landscapes of the Kashmir Himalaya from 1994 to 2013 to study the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on species distributions and community dynamics. In 2014 and 2017, we collected vegetation data along 31 T-shaped transects laid perpendicular to the railway line, adopting the MIREN (Mountain Invasion Research Network) road survey methodology.
3. Plant communities shifted significantly from 2014 to 2017, potentially because of an ongoing species redistribution after railway construction, driven mainly by declines in both native and non-native species richness, and an increasing abundance of a few non-native species, especially in areas away from the railway track.
4. These patterns indicate an advancing succession, where initially—rare—pioneer species are replaced by increasingly dominant and often non-native competitors, and potentially suggest a trend towards delayed local extinctions after the disturbance event. Native and non-native species richness was negatively correlated with elevation, but that relationship diminished over time, with the abundance of non-natives significantly increasing at higher elevations.
5. Synthesis and applications. Transport corridors seem to facilitate the spread of non-native species to higher elevations, which has serious implications considering the warming mountain tops. Our results indicate that the plant communities next to railways do not reach equilibrium quickly after a disturbance. More than 10 years after railway establishment within Kashmir Himalaya, succession continued, and signs pointed towards a landscape increasingly dominated by non-native species. Our study indicates that the single disturbance event associated with constructing railway in this Himalayan region had large and long-lasting effects on plant communities at and around this transport corridor and suggests the need for a long-term region-wide coordinated monitoring and management program.

中文翻译：

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铁路重新分配山地景观中的植物物种

1. 栖息在山区的全球陆地生物多样性的很大一部分正受到各种人为影响的日益严重的威胁。保护脆弱的山区生态系统需要了解这些人类干扰如何影响生物多样性。随着公路和铁路进一步延伸到山区生态系统，了解这种基础设施对社区组成和多样性的长期影响变得紧迫。
2. 我们使用 1994 年至 2013 年间跨越克什米尔喜马拉雅山地景观的铁路走廊来研究人为干扰对物种分布和群落动态的影响。2014 年和 2017 年，我们采用 MIREN（山地入侵研究网络）道路调查方法，沿垂直于铁路线铺设的 31 个 T 形断面收集植被数据。
3. 植物群落从 2014 年到 2017 年发生了显着变化，这可能是因为铁路建设后正在进行的物种重新分布，主要是由于本地和非本地物种丰富度下降，以及一些非本地物种的丰度增加，特别是在远离地区从铁路轨道。
4. 这些模式表明了一个不断推进的演替，其中最初的稀有先锋物种被日益占优势且通常是非本地竞争者所取代，并可能表明干扰事件后局部灭绝延迟的趋势。本地和非本地物种丰富度与海拔呈负相关，但这种关系随着时间的推移而减弱，非本地物种的丰度在较高海拔处显着增加。
5. 合成与应用。运输走廊似乎促进了非本地物种向更高海拔的传播，考虑到山顶变暖，这具有严重的影响。我们的结果表明，铁路旁边的植物群落在受到干扰后不会很快达到平衡。在克什米尔喜马拉雅山脉建立铁路 10 多年后，演替仍在继续，迹象表明景观越来越多地由非本地物种主导。我们的研究表明，与在该喜马拉雅地区修建铁路相关的单一干扰事件对该运输走廊及其周围的植物群落产生了巨大而持久的影响，并表明需要一个长期的全区域协调监测和管理计划。