Dispersal of invasive Pinus strobus in sandstone areas of the Czech Republic Věra Hadincová 1 , Zuzana Münzbergová 1,2 , Jan Wild 1 , Ludvík Šajtar 3 and Jana Marešová 4 1. Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-252 43 Průhonice, Czech Republic 2. Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. 3. Administration of the Protected Landscape the Lusatian Mountains, Školní 12, 471 25 Jablonné v Podještědí, Czech Republic 4. Research Institute of Crop Production, Drnovská 507, CZ-16106 Prague 6 – Ruzyně, Czech Republic Abstract Understanding dispersal ability of an invasive species is crucial for describing its potential spread. Despite this, we still know relatively little about the dispersal potential of many invasive species. This paper explores dispersal spectra in Pinus strobus L., an invasive tree in sandstone areas in Central Europe. Data on distribution of self-sown trees is compared to predictions of a simple dis- persal model. P. strobus can disperse up to 752 m from the parent source. This estimate is one of the largest estimates of dispersal based on systematic data collected in a large range of distances from the seed source. The observed dispersal pattern falls within the confidence intervals of the predic- tions based on a simple exponential model, indicating that this model has the potential to approxi- mate field distribution patterns. Introduction Most studies dealing with distribution of invasive species in natural communities are concerned with species life history traits (Rejmánek & Richardson 1996, Richardson & Rejmánek 2004, Sakai et al. 2001, Grotkopp et al. 2002) and local habitat conditions (Higgins & Richardson 1998, Davis et al. 2000). Studies dealing with patterns of invasion at the landscape level usually compare pattern of species distribution in different time periods (e.g. Lonsdale 1993, McCay 2001, Mihulka & Pyšek 2001, Mandák et al. 2004). This provides information about the species inva- siveness but its value for predicting pattern and rate of future species invasion dynamics is limited (Higgins & Richardson 1999). The first prerequisite for predicting patterns of species invasion at the landscape level is a description of a species dispersal ability. Studies estimating dispersal can be divided into those estimating pattern of dispersal using field distribution of indi- viduals (Bullock & Clarke 2000, Nathan et al. 2000b), degree of gene flow within Plant Invasions: Xxxxx, pp. 0-00 Edited by Xxxxx Xxxxx © 2007 Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands Hadincova_q6.qxd 31-05-2007 12:11 Pagina 1