Importance of plant traits and herbivory for invasiveness of Phragmites australis (Poaceae)

Biological invasions change native plant communities, but theory predicting whether introductions create naturalized or invasive species is lacking. Focusing on either plant traits or interactions of introduced plants with native biota creates unreliable results, and improvements may require integra...

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Published inAmerican journal of botany Vol. 95; no. 12; pp. 1557 - 1568
Main Authors Park, Mia G, Blossey, Bernd
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Botanical Society of America 01.12.2008
Botanical Soc America
Botanical Society of America, Inc
Subjects
Biological invasions
common garden
Ecological invasion
Ecology
Effects
Flowers & plants
Haplotypes
Herbivores
herbivory
Hyalopterus pruni
Invasive species
invasive success
Leaves
Life span
Lipara
Nonnative species
phenology
Phragmites australis
Plant gall
Plant growth
Plants
Poaceae
Wetland ecology
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Summary:Biological invasions change native plant communities, but theory predicting whether introductions create naturalized or invasive species is lacking. Focusing on either plant traits or interactions of introduced plants with native biota creates unreliable results, and improvements may require integration of trait- and interaction-based approaches. To assess the importance of plant traits and herbivory on invasiveness, we incorporated herbivore effects in comparisons of growth and phenology of invasive Phragmites australis and its native congener P. australis subsp. americanus. Our results were influenced by venue (field or common garden), with extended life span and optimized leaf-age structure of introduced P. australis indicating greater potential for resource capture. Attack by introduced gallflies affected expression of plant traits, but we found no consistent effect of aphid attack. Origin did not affect leaf emergence or stem height, but preferential gallfly attack stunted native P. australis and delayed senescence. Greater resource capture and lower attack by nonnative herbivores could give introduced P. australis an advantage over the native subspecies. Our results demonstrating the importance of plant traits as well as their modification by interactions with natural enemies questions whether the outcome of plant introductions can be predicted.
Bibliography:The authors thank the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, New York Sea Grant, and Cornell University (Hatch and Mellon) for grants to support this research. J. Booth assisted with statistical analyses and P. Ugoletti, J. Penafiel, V. Loques, and F. Eichiner assisted with garden and field work. The authors particularly acknowledge the assistance of many collaborators throughout North America who provided rhizome material and the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge for permission to conduct this study. Helpful comments by three anonymous reviewers further improved the manuscript.
Present address: Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA
ObjectType-Article-1
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content type line 23
ISSN:0002-9122
1537-2197
DOI:10.3732/ajb.0800023