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Invasive clonal plant species have a greater root-foraging plasticity than non-invasive ones

Keser, Lidewij ; Dawson, Wayne ; Song, Yao-Bin ; Yu, Fei-Hai ; Fischer, Markus ; Dong, Ming ; van Kleunen, Mark

In: Oecologia, 2014, vol. 174, no. 3, p. 1055-1064

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    Titre
    • Invasive clonal plant species have a greater root-foraging plasticity than non-invasive ones
    Auteur
    • Keser, Lidewij. Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland
    • Dawson, Wayne. Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78457, Constance, Germany
    • Song, Yao-Bin. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100093, Beijing, China
    • Yu, Fei-Hai. School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, 100083, Beijing, China
    • Fischer, Markus. Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland
    • Dong, Ming. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100093, Beijing, China
    • van Kleunen, Mark. Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78457, Constance, Germany
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:325843
    Summary
    Clonality is frequently positively correlated with plant invasiveness, but which aspects of clonality make some clonal species more invasive than others is not known. Due to their spreading growth form, clonal plants are likely to experience spatial heterogeneity in nutrient availability. Plasticity in allocation of biomass to clonal growth organs and roots may allow these plants to forage for high-nutrient patches. We investigated whether this foraging response is stronger in species that have become invasive than in species that have not. We used six confamilial pairs of native European clonal plant species differing in invasion success in the USA. We grew all species in large pots under homogeneous or heterogeneous nutrient conditions in a greenhouse, and compared their nutrient-foraging response and performance. Neither invasive nor non-invasive species showed significant foraging responses to heterogeneity in clonal growth organ biomass or in aboveground biomass of clonal offspring. Invasive species had, however, a greater positive foraging response in terms of root and belowground biomass than non-invasive species. Invasive species also produced more total biomass. Our results suggest that the ability for strong root foraging is among the characteristics promoting invasiveness in clonal plants.