Effects of biological invasions on forest carbon sequestration

Abstract

There has been a rapidly developing literature on the effects of some of the major drivers of global change on carbon (C) sequestration, particularly carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) enrichment, land use change, nitrogen (N) deposition and climate change. However, remarkably little attention has been given to one major global change driver, namely biological invasions. This is despite growing evidence that invasive species can dramatically alter a range of aboveground and belowground ecosystem processes, including those that affect C sequestration. In this review, we assess the evidence for the impacts of biological invaders on forest C stocks and C sequestration by biological invaders. We first present case studies that highlight a range of invader impacts on C sequestration in forest ecosystems, and draw on examples that involve invasive primary producers, decomposers, herbivores, plant pathogens, mutualists and predators. We then develop a conceptual framework for assessing the effects of invasive species on C sequestration impacts more generally, by identifying the features of biological invaders and invaded ecosystems that are thought to most strongly regulate C in forests. Finally we assess the implications of managing invasive species on C sequestration. An important principle that emerges from this review is that the direct effects of invaders on forest C are often smaller and shorter-term than their indirect effects caused by altered nutrient availability, primary productivity or species composition, all of which regulate longterm C pools and fluxes. This review provides a conceptual basis for improving our general understanding of biological invaders on ecosystem C, but also points to a paucity of primary data that are needed to determine the quantitative effects of invaders on ecosystem processes that drive C sequestration.

Plant communities as drivers of soil respiration: pathways, mechanisms, and significance for global change

“…Such shifts can serve as natural experiments which provide valuable insights into the myriad effects of individual plant species on ecosystem structure and function. A growing number of studies have shown that even single plant species can drive major changes in ecosystem wide C cycling (Bradley et al, 2006;Litton et al, 2008;Peltzer et al, 2010). In a survey of 94 experimental studies, invaded ecosystems on average had 83 % higher productivity and 117 % faster litter decomposition rates (Liao et al, 2008), often driven in part by consistent trait differences between invading species and native species.…”

“…(1) plant traits (Wardle et al, 2004;Cornwell et al, 2008;de Deyn et al, 2008), (2) plant invasions and range expansions (Peltzer et al, 2010), and (3) plant diversity (Hättenschwiler et al, 2005;Hooper et al, 2005). Finally, given the likelihood of future large scale shifts in the distribution, composition and diversity of plant communities driven by climate change (Neilson et al, 2005), we discuss the contrasting approaches taken by major models to simulate species effects on ecosystem C cycling Friedlingstein et al, 2006;Ostle et al, 2009;Reu et al, 2010).…”

Focusing Ecological Research for Conservation

“…Changes in temperatures and moisture regimes and increases in the incidence of chance events such as floods, droughts, and hurricanes could wipe out isolated populations of threatened species. Also, species invasions can be facilitated by climatic changes, and warming can have enormous consequences for carbon fluxes in forested ecosystems (Peltzer et al 2010).…”

Simulated nitrogen deposition influences the growth and competitive ability of Centaurea stoebe populations

“…土壤氮含量是陆生植物生长的主要限制因素 (Chapin et al,1986;Elser et al, 2010) (Feng et al, 2009;Peltzer et al, 2010)。因 此, 土壤氮可利用性能够影响种间竞争能力。 可利用性资源的增加能促进外来植物入侵 (He et al, 2012)。入侵植物一般具有较高的硝酸还原酶 活 性 , 因 此 多 具 有 嗜 氮 性 和 较 高 的 氮 利 用 效 率 (Feng et al, 2009;Penuelas et al, 2009;Peltzer et al, 2010), 往往能够耐受更贫瘠的土壤环境, 常表现为 较快的生长速度和较强的竞争能力 (Callaway et al, 2004;Bradley et al, 2010), 其种间竞争能力随氮元 素浓度的变化而变化 (Tilman et al, 1982;Grime, 2001;Peltzer et al, 2010)。 可见, 与本地植物种相比, 入侵植物表现出更强的氮利用性优势。 工业革命以来, 全球范围的大气氮沉降速率逐 步加快 (Reay et al, 2008;Maskell et al, 2010), 不断 提高土壤可利用性氮水平, 已经造成许多地区土壤 氮的富营养化 (Kardol et al, 2010;Garcia et al, 2011), 严重影响了陆地生态系统的生产力和稳定 性 (Phoenix et al, 2006;谢迎新等, 2010) (He et al, 2012;Martin et al, 2014;Mráz et al, 2014) (He et al, 2012), C. stoebe种群在不同入 侵地的竞争能力和竞争效果差异显著 (Ridenour et al, 2008;Reinhart & Rinella, 2011) …”