Non-native populations of an invasive tree outperform their native conspecifics

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Heidi Hirsch
  • Isabell Hensen
  • Karsten Wesche
  • Daniel Renison
  • Catherina Wypior
  • Matthias Hartmann
  • Henrik von Wehrden

Introduced plants often face new environmental conditions in their non-native ranges. To become invasive, they need to overcome several biotic and abiotic filters that may trigger adaptive changes in life-history traits, like postgermination processes. Such early life cycle traits may play a crucial role in the colonization and establishment success of invasive plants. As a previous study revealed that seeds of non-native populations of the woody Siberian elm, Ulmus pumila, germinated faster than those of native populations, we expected growth performance of seedlings to mirror this finding. Here, we conducted a common garden greenhouse experiment using different temperature and watering treatments to compare the biomass production of U. pumila seedlings derived from 7 native and 13 populations from two non-native ranges. Our results showed that under all treatments, non-native populations were characterized by higher biomass production and enhanced resource allocation to aboveground biomass compared to the native populations. The observed enhanced growth performance of non-native populations might be one of the contributing factors for the invasion success of U. pumila due to competitive advantages during the colonization of new sites.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberplw071
JournalAoB PLANTS
Volume8
Number of pages11
ISSN2041-2851
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13.10.2016

    Research areas

  • Biomass, Genetic shift, Greenhouse, Post-germination traits, Shoot-root ratio, Ulmus pumila
  • Biology
  • Ecosystems Research

Documents

DOI