Ailanthus altissima is one of the worst invasive plants in Europe in several habitat types, including high-biodiversity grasslands. The aim of this work was to evaluate the impact of the invasive A. altissima on high-biodiversity grassland vegetation and the effects of its removal on the recovery of native plant communities. The study area was within the Alta Murgia National Park (SE Italy). Seventeen vegetation quadrats were sampled in invaded grasslands and nine quadrats were sampled in nearby uninvaded areas. A. altissima was removed from six quadrats, which were sampled for two years after plant removal. Cluster analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination were used to identify and visualize the general vegetation pattern. Generalised Linear Models with different error structures were used to analyse the effects of A. altissima on native grasslands and vegetation recovery after removal. Results showed that the invasion of A. altissima changed drastically the community composition, reduced plant richness and diversity. Invaded stands had a greater presence of ruderal and widely distributed taxa, as opposed to a lesser presence of endemic and Mediterranean ones. The differences in the community composition between invaded and uninvaded quadrats became clearly detectable when A. altissima plants exceeded a threshold of 1 m of height and 50% of coverage. After A. altissima removal, the recovery of the grassland community was not completely achieved after two years.

臭椿是欧洲几种栖息地类型中入侵最严重的植物之一，包括高生物多样性草原。这项工作的目的是评估侵入性A. altissima对高生物多样性草地植被的影响及其去除对本地植物群落恢复的影响。研究区域位于 Alta Murgia 国家公园（意大利东南部）内。在被入侵的草原上采样了 17 个植被样方，在附近的未入侵区域采样了 9 个样方。A. altissima从六个样方中移除，在植物移除后两年采样。聚类分析和非度量多维尺度排序用于识别和可视化一般植被模式。采用具有不同误差结构的广义线性模型分析了高山草对原生草地和移除后植被恢复的影响。结果表明，A. altissima的入侵极大地改变了群落组成，降低了植物的丰富度和多样性。被入侵的林分有更多的原始和广泛分布的类群，而不是地方性和地中海类群的较少存在。当被入侵的和未被入侵的象限之间的群落组成差异变得清晰可见时A. altissima植物超过了 1 m 高度和 50% 覆盖率的阈值。之后臭椿拆除，草地群落的恢复并没有完全两年后实现的。