Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability in Invasive Nonindigenous Plants: A Hypothesis

Blossey, Bernd; Nötzold, Rolf

doi:10.2307/2261425

Cited by 1,607 publications

(1,592 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

1,494

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Escape from specialist herbivores, often requiring costly deterrents to keep them at bay, is thought to allow for an evolutionary shift in energy allocation from defense to growth (Feng et al 2009;Ru et al 2011). This shift can give invasive plants increased competitive ability, outcompeting local plant species (Blossey and Nötzold 1995). In this study we did not find strong evidence from microscopic analysis supporting our hypothesis that invasive genotypes have evolved lower structural defense against herbivory.…”

Section: Structural Defensecontrasting

confidence: 78%

“…Further hypotheses were proposed on the basis of evolutionary changes during invasion. The Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability hypothesis (EICA) predicts that the escape from specialist herbivores leads to an evolutionary change in invasive plants in energy allocation from defense to growth which can give invasive plants a higher competitive ability to outcompete local plant species (Blossey and Nötzold 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Enemies lost: parallel evolution in structural defense and tolerance to herbivory of invasive Jacobaea vulgaris

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

According to the Shifting Defense Hypothesis, invasive plants should trade-off their costly quantitative defense to cheaper qualitative defense and growth due to the lack of natural specialist enemies and the presence of generalist enemies in the introduced areas. Several studies showed that plant genotypes from the invasive areas had a better qualitative defense than genotypes from the native area but only a few studies have focused on the quantitative defenses and tolerance ability. We compared structural defenses, tolerance and growth between invasive and native plant populations from different continents using the model plant Jacobaea vulgaris. We examined several microscopical structure traits, toughness, amount of cell wall proteins, growth and root-shoot ratio, which is a proxy for tolerance. The results show that invasive Jacobaea vulgaris have thinner leaves, lower leaf mass area, lower leaf cell wall protein contents and a lower root-shoot ratio than native genotypes. It indicates that invasive genotypes have poorer structural defense and tolerance to herbivory but potentially higher growth compared to native genotypes. These findings are in line with the Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability hypothesis and Shifting Defense Hypothesis. We also show that the invasiveness of this species in three geographically separated regions is consistently associated with the loss of parts of its quantitative defense and tolerance ability. The simultaneous change in quantitative defense and tolerance of the same magnitude and direction in the three invasive regions can be explained by parallel evolution. We argue that such parallel evolution might be attributed to the absence of natural enemies rather than adaptation to local abiotic factors, since climate conditions among these three regions were different. Understanding such evolutionary changes helps to understand why plant species become invasive and might be important for biological control.

show abstract

Section: Structural Defensecontrasting

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enemies lost: parallel evolution in structural defense and tolerance to herbivory of invasive Jacobaea vulgaris

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Alien success could bring new clues to this topic. In fact, the role of plant defense allocation in invasive success has been widely discussed, and some theories such as "Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability" (EICA) hypothesis (Blossey and Nötzold, 1995) were proposed to link plant defense strategy with alien success. For example, a recent approach of EICA proposes that selection may favor a reduction in the expression of metabolically expensive chemical defenses effective against specialist herbivores (Müller-Schärer et al, 2004;Lankau, 2007) but instead favor an increase of the contents of less costly qualitative defenses effective against general herbivores such as terpenes (Joshi and Vrieling, 2005;Stastny et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher Allocation to Low Cost Chemical Defenses in Invasive Species of Hawaii

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The capacity to produce carbon-based secondary compounds (CBSC), such as phenolics (including tannins) and terpenes as defensive compounds against herbivores or against neighboring competing plants can be involved in the competition between alien and native plant species. Since the Hawaiian Islands are especially vulnerable to invasions by alien species, we compared total phenolic (TP), total tannin (Tta), and total terpene (TT) leaf contents of alien and native plants on Oahu Island (Hawaii). We analyzed 35 native and 38 alien woody plant species randomly chosen among representative current Hawaiian flora. None of these CBSC exhibited phylogenetic fingerprinting. Alien species had similar leaf TP and leaf Tta contents, and 135% higher leaf TT contents compared with native species. Alien plants had 80% higher leaf TT:N leaf content ratio than native plants. The results suggest that apart from greater growth rate and greater nutrient use, alien success in Oahu also may be linked to greater contents of low cost chemical defenses, such as terpenes, as expected in faster-growing species in resource rich regions. The higher TT contents in aliens may counterbalance their lower investment in leaf structural defenses and their higher leaf nutritional quality. The higher TT provides higher effectiveness in deterring the generalist herbivores of the introduced range, where specialist herbivores are absent. In addition, higher TT contents may favor aliens conferring higher protection against abiotic and biotic stressors. The higher terpene accumulation was independent of the alien species origin, which indicates that being alien either selects for higher terpene contents post-invasion, or that species with high terpene contents are pre-adapted to invasiveness. Although less likely, an originally lower terpene accumulation in Hawaiian than in continental plants that avoids the increased attraction of specialist enemies associated to terpenes may not be discarded.

show abstract

“…2002) and the chance of a species being introduced elsewhere (Py ß ek, Richardson & Williamson 2004). The number of intraspecific subtaxa is likely to reflect high intraspecific genetic variation, which increases both the chance of pre-adapted genotypes of the species being present and the potential for post-introduction evolution (Blossey & Nötzold 1995;Müller-Schärer, Schaffner & Steinger 2004). Plant height is likely to be positively associated with competitive ability, which may increase naturalization (Crawley 1987;Blossey & Nötzold 1995;Remánek et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting naturalization of southern African Iridaceae in other regions

Kleunen

Johnson

Fischer

2007

Journal of Applied Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary 1.One of the major challenges in invasion biology is to predict the likelihood of naturalization, and ultimately invasiveness, of species from properties that can be assessed in the native range prior to a species' introduction elsewhere. This is particularly relevant as intentional introduction for horticultural usage has been predicted to be the over-riding factor associated with naturalization. 2. We compiled a data set on 1036 species of Iridaceae native to southern Africa to test whether traits differ between horticulturally used and unused species, whether the likelihood of naturalization elsewhere is higher for horticulturally used species, and whether it differs according to species' taxonomic affinities, geographical range size, altitudinal range, number of subtaxa and plant size. 3. Our results show that at least 306 southern African Iridaceae species are used in horticulture elsewhere. Of the 67 that have become naturalized elsewhere, no less than 62 are in horticulture, indicating horticultural trade as the main source of naturalized Iridaceae. 4. Global horticultural usage differs among the three subfamilies and among the genera. In addition, horticultural usage is more likely for species with a larger distributional range, a lower maximum altitude, more subtaxa and a taller height. This indicates that species introduced elsewhere for horticultural usage have a biased set of biogeographical and biological characteristics that should be corrected for in analyses of naturalization. 5. After correction for horticultural usage, naturalization differs between genera, and is more likely for species with lower maximum altitude, species with higher numbers of subtaxa and taller species. 6. Cross-validation of our predictive logistic regression model revealed a low kappa (0·279 ± 0·069, mean ± SE) that was significantly different from zero. This indicates that the estimates from our logistic regression model can be used to predict naturalization of Iridaceae but that the accuracy is relatively low. 7. Synthesis and applications . Our study shows that screening protocols for potential invasiveness of species of Iridaceae should include international horticultural usage, and taxonomic, biogeographical and biological characteristics in the native range, as predictors. Moreover, for the development of more accurate predictive models, experimental assessment of other plant characteristics associated with naturalization is still required.

show abstract

Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability in Invasive Nonindigenous Plants: A Hypothesis

Cited by 1,607 publications

References 11 publications

Enemies lost: parallel evolution in structural defense and tolerance to herbivory of invasive Jacobaea vulgaris

Enemies lost: parallel evolution in structural defense and tolerance to herbivory of invasive Jacobaea vulgaris

Higher Allocation to Low Cost Chemical Defenses in Invasive Species of Hawaii

Predicting naturalization of southern African Iridaceae in other regions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About