Linking Trait Differences to Community Dynamics: Evidence from Eupatorium adenophorum and Co-Occurring Native Species during a Three-Year Succession
Sun S (2013) Linking Trait Differences to Community Dynamics: Evidence from Eupatorium adenophorum and Co-Occurring
Native Species during a Three-Year Succession. PLoS ONE 8(1): e50247. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050247
Linking Trait Differences to Community Dynamics: Evidence from Eupatorium adenophorum and Co- Occurring Native Species during a Three-Year Succession
Xianming Gao 0
Yujie Zhao 0
Xuejun Yang 0
Shucun Sun 0
Malcolm Bennett, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
0 1 State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , China , 2 Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , China , 3 ECORES Lab, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Chengdu, Sichuan , China
Trait differences between invasive and native species are believed to be closely related to whether the former are successful. However, few studies have measured trait differences between invasive and native species directly under field conditions or during long term experiments. We examined the phenological pattern, plant height and biomass accumulation and allocation of Crofton weed (Eupatorium adenophorum Spreng.) and co-occurring native species in a community during a three-year succession. The phenological pattern of Crofton weed differed from that of co-occurring native species. Crofton weed had longer vegetative stage (when resources were more available), a higher biomass accumulation and a higher above/below-ground ratio compared to native species. Crofton weed was shorter than grasses and two forbs (Artemisia tangutica and Cynoglossum amabile) during its first year of growth, but was significantly taller than all other species during subsequent years. The dominance (calculated as the importance value) of Crofton weed was the highest among all other species and continually increased over time while the dominance of co-occurring native species decreased. This study provides direct field evidence that trait differences are important to plant invasion.
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Funding: This study was financially supported by the National Basic Research and Development Program of China (2009CB112000), the key project of the
Chinese Academy of Science (KSCX1-SW-13-03-06) and National Nature Science Foundation of China (30670333). The funders had no role in study design, data
collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
As a result of increasing human activities, many species have
invaded a wide range of new regions at an unprecedented rate [1
3]. The spread of invasive species and the homogenization of flora
have been recognized as a global issue [48]. Exotic plants that
become invasive can alter ecosystem structure and function [9
11], because invasive species may: (1) acquire resources differently
from native species, (2) alter trophic relationships, or (3) change the
frequency or intensity of disturbance [12]. Invasive species can
also affect ecosystem processes through changes in plant-soil
organism feedbacks [13,14]. Thus, plant invasions pose major
threats to biodiversity, ecosystem stability and human welfare
[15,16]. Consequently, mechanisms underlying invasiveness have
become an important topic in ecology and conservation biology
[9,17]. Despite increasing efforts, it remains difficult to identify the
mechanisms or even the functional traits that convey the ability of
species to invade novel habitats [14,16,1819].
It is clear nevertheless that functional traits (life form,
phenology, polyploidy level, etc.) determine how plants reproduce
and capture resources [2022], which undoubtedly influence
whether a species is successful when competing with other species
for space and resources [9,11,17]. Because co-occurring invasive
and native species experience similar environmental selection
pressures (i.e. habitat filtering), several theories predict that they
are likely to share traits adaptive to their local environment
[17,2325]. At the same time, the success of invasive species may
be due to trait differences [11,23,26]. In general, traits that enable
high reproduction rates and rapid dispersal facilitate colonization
while those that enable rapid growth and resource acquisition are
important for establishment and the subsequent displacement of
the resident vegetation [20,27]. Functional traits related to
physiology, biomass allocation, and size may also be related to
invasiveness [28,29].
The most successful invaders are often species with high specific
leaf area (SLA), high phenotypic plasticity, high relative growth
rate (RGR) and high nutrient turnover rate [3,19,3031]. Thus,
traits associated with growth and allocation can, in general, be
used to predict interactions between introduced and native species
in a particular environment [32,33]. A recent study suggests that
many plant attributes play an important role in (...truncated)