Environmental variability promotes plant invasion

Parepa, Madalin; Fischer, Markus; Bossdorf, Oliver

doi:10.1038/ncomms2632

Cited by 158 publications

(173 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…These results confirm and at the same time reconcile the contradictory findings from previous experiments where knotweed had first been found to exert strong allelopathic effects in potting substrate (Murrell et al 2011), but then very little evidence for allelopathy had been found in experiments with field soil (Parepa et al 2012(Parepa et al , 2013a(Parepa et al , 2014. Our experiment shows that these contradictory findings are likely due to the use of the different substrates, and it confirms the results of another recent study that could not verify allelopathic effects of alleged allelopathic plants invaders under field conditions (Del Fabbro et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…One possible explanation for the different outcomes of plant-plant interactions in different substrates is that they may differ in their soil biota. Soil biota appear to play an important role not only in knotweed invasion (Parepa et al 2013a), but also in the invasion success of several other introduced plants (e.g., Mangla and Callaway 2008;Scharfy et al 2010). Exotic plants may experience more positive plant-soil interactions either because they encounter less antagonists than the native plants (Klironomos 2002) or because they benefit more from mutualistic soil biota (Reinhart and Callaway 2004;Sun and He 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous research first suggested that allelopathy might play a significant role in the competitive superiority of invasive knotweeds (Siemens and Blossey 2007;Murrell et al 2011), but follow-up experiments (Parepa et al 2012(Parepa et al , 2013a(Parepa et al , 2014 could not confirm these findings, and often found knotweed to be less dominant, in spite of similar experimental set-ups. A key difference between previous studies, however, was that some had used commercial potting substrates whereas others had used natural soils.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Testing for allelopathy in invasive plants: it all depends on the substrate!

Parepa

Bossdorf

2016

Biol Invasions

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Invasive plants can affect native plants through competition or allelopathy, and researchers often use pot experiments as a tool to measure the strength of these interactions. Recently, such pot experiments provided inconsistent estimates of the impact and allelopathic potential of invasive knotweed, one of the world's most successful plant invaders. We suspected that the inconsistencies may be explained by the use of different substrates in different experiments. To test this, we conducted an experiment in which knotweed competed pairwise with five common native European species in several different substrates: two compost-based potting substrates and two natural soils, with or without extra fertilizer added. To test for allelopathy, we added activated carbon to half of the pots. We found that knotweed was generally much more successful, and there was much more evidence for its allelopathy, when tested in artificial potting substrates than in natural soils. Furthermore, addition of extra fertilizer decreased the dominance of knotweed and changed patterns of allelopathy. The physicochemical properties of potting soil, such as lower bulk density, higher pore space, permeability and nitrogen content may better allow rhizomes to penetrate and/or allelochemicals to be produced and diffused. If artificial substrates generally exaggerate dominance and allelopathy also in other invasive plants, then many previous studies may have overestimated the potential impact of invaders, and the results of these experiments should be interpreted with caution. To avoid misleading results, experiments that test the competitive or allelopathic impact of invasive plants should be done with natural soils, preferably from the targeted habitats.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Testing for allelopathy in invasive plants: it all depends on the substrate!

Parepa

Bossdorf

2016

Biol Invasions

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“…Invasive knotweeds also cause significant structural damage in urban habitats, which, together with the high costs of their removal, makes them the most problematic invasive plants in temperate ecosystems in Europe (Williams et al 2010). Previous studies show that invasive knotweeds are indeed superior resource competitors (Parepa et al 2013); they can exert allelopathic effects on native plants (Siemens and Blossey 2007, Murrell et al 2010, Parepa et al 2012) and may disrupt soil mutualisms (Urgenson et al 2012). However, the mechanisms underlying their competitive ability and allelopathic potential, in particular the potential role of soil biota in mediating them, are still not well understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Help from under ground: soil biota facilitate knotweed invasion

2013

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Abstract. Soil biota can be important drivers of plant community structure. Depending on the balance between antagonistic and mutualistic interactions, they can limit or promote the success of plant species. This is particularly important in the context of exotic plant invasions where soil biota can either increase the biotic resistance of habitats, or they can shift the balance between exotic and native plants towards the exotics and thereby greatly contribute to their dominance. Here, we explored the role of soil biota in the invasion success of exotic knotweed (Fallopia 3 bohemica), one of the world's most noxious invasive plants. We created artificial native plant communities that were experimentally invaded by knotweed, using a range of substrates where we manipulated different fractions of soil biota. We found that invasive knotweed benefited more from the overall presence of soil biota than any of the six native species. In particular the presence of the full natural soil biota strongly shifted the competitive balance in favor of knotweed. Soil biota promoted both regeneration and growth of the invader, which suggests that soil organisms may be important both in the early establishment of knotweed and possibly its later dominance of native communities. Addition of activated carbon to the soil made the advantage of knotweed disappear, which suggests that the mechanisms underlying the positive soil biota effects are chemically mediated. Our study demonstrates that soil organisms play a key role in the invasion success of exotic knotweed.

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“…Invasive plants refer to the species that are introduced by human activities, intentionally or unintentionally, from their native region to a new region, in environmental ecological system of which they form self-regeneration capacity, cause harm or impact on the surrounding ecosystems, industries, or human health, disrupting the ecological balance (Wan et al, 2009;Navajas et al, 2013;Parepa et al, 2013). They often have a strong ability to reproduce and spread, and the so-caused huge damage has become the global hot issue in the biological environment, safety and economy, and aroused great concern of all countries around the world.…”

Section: Instructionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis on DNA Methylation in Chromolaena Odorata from Different Area and at Different Nitrogen Level by MSAP

Chi¹,

Chen²,

Guo³

et al. 2015

Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Industrial Technology and Management Science

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Two species of Chromolaena odorata, with one indigenous in Mexico and the other introduced to Sipsongpanna, were cultivated by water culture method, and treated by high, normal and low nitrogen respectively, and the technology of methylation sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) was used to explore the changes of DNA methylation polymorphism of the C. odorata with different sources and the influence of nitrogen nutrition levels on their DNA methylation polymorphisms. The study showed that DNA methylation levels and modes of the two species that undergone high nitrogen and low nitrogen treatments were changed, DNA methylation level of C. odorata invaded in Sipsongpanna was higher than that in the place of origin, and the higher the nitrogen supply level, the higher the DNA methylation.

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Environmental variability promotes plant invasion

Cited by 158 publications

References 20 publications

Testing for allelopathy in invasive plants: it all depends on the substrate!

Testing for allelopathy in invasive plants: it all depends on the substrate!

Help from under ground: soil biota facilitate knotweed invasion

Analysis on DNA Methylation in Chromolaena Odorata from Different Area and at Different Nitrogen Level by MSAP

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