Differential responses to fertilization and competition among invasive, noninvasive alien, and native Bidens species

• Published in: Ecology and evolution Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 516 - 525
• Main Authors: Woo, Sunghyun, Lee, Dongyeob, Cho, Yong‐Chan, Lee, Sangsun, Kim, Eunsuk
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Anthropogenic factors; Bidens; Bidens frondosa; Comparative studies; Competition; Dispersal; Dispersion; Environmental changes; Environmental conditions; Eutrophication; Fecundity; Fertilization; Flowers & plants; Functional plasticity; functional traits; Growth rate; Indigenous species; Invasive plants; Invasive species; Invasiveness; Morphology; Native species; Nonnative species; Original Research; Phenotypic plasticity; Plant species; Plastic properties; Plasticity; Plastics; seed morphology; Seeds; Success; trait differences; South Korea; trait differences; phenotypic plasticity; functional traits; invasive species; seed morphology
• ISSN: 2045-7758; 2045-7758
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7071

Comparative studies of invasive, noninvasive alien, and native congenic plant species can identify plant traits that drive invasiveness. In particular, functional traits associated with rapid growth rate and high fecundity likely facilitate invasive success. As such traits often exhibit high phenotypic plasticity, characterizing plastic responses to anthropogenic environmental changes such as eutrophication and disturbance is important for predicting the invasive success of alien plant species in the future. Here, we compared trait expression and phenotypic plasticity at the species level among invasive, noninvasive alien, and native Bidens species. Plants were grown under nutrient addition and competition treatments, and their functional, morphological, and seed traits were examined. Invasive B. frondosa exhibited higher phenotypic plasticity in most measured traits than did the alien noninvasive B. pilosa or native B. bipinnata. However, differential plastic responses to environmental treatments rarely altered the rank of trait values among the three Bidens species, except for the number of inflorescences. The achene size of B. frondosa was larger, but its pappus length was shorter than that of B. pilosa. Two species demonstrated opposite plastic responses of pappus length to fertilization. These results suggest that the plasticity of functional traits does not significantly contribute to the invasive success of B. frondosa. The dispersal efficiency of B. frondosa is expected to be lower than that of B. pilosa, suggesting that long‐distance dispersal is likely not a critical factor in determining invasive success. We conducted a comparative study examining phenotype expression of invasive, noninvasive alien, and native Bidens species under fertilization and competition treatment. While invasive B. frondosa exhibited higher plasticity than other species, the plasticity of functional traits does not likely contribute to the invasive success. The dispersal efficiency of B. frondosa is expected to be lower than that of other Bidens species, suggesting that long‐distance dispersal is likely not a critical factor in determining invasive success.