TY - JOUR

T1 - Non-native populations of an invasive tree outperform their native conspecifics

AU - Hirsch, Heidi

AU - Hensen, Isabell

AU - Wesche, Karsten

AU - Renison, Daniel

AU - Wypior, Catherina

AU - Hartmann, Matthias

AU - von Wehrden, Henrik

PY - 2016/10/13

Y1 - 2016/10/13

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Biomass

KW - Genetic shift

KW - Greenhouse

KW - Post-germination traits

KW - Shoot-root ratio

KW - Ulmus pumila

KW - Biology

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85016066472&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/aobpla/plw071

DO - 10.1093/aobpla/plw071

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 27742647

AN - SCOPUS:85016066472

VL - 8

JO - AoB PLANTS

JF - AoB PLANTS

SN - 2041-2851

M1 - plw071

ER -