Assessing plant community composition fails to capture impacts of white-tailed deer on native and invasive plant species

Exotic plant species often negatively affect native herbivores due to the lack of palatability of the invading plant. Although often unsuitable as food, certain invasive species may provide non-nutritional ecological benefits through increased habitat structural complexity. To understand the potential for common invasive forest plant species of the eastern United States to benefit invertebrate communities, we examined the functional and taxonomic community composition of forest insects and spiders in long-term monitoring plots that contained invasive plant species. The extent of invasive plant species ground cover significantly altered spider community composition as categorized by hunting guild. Areas with higher invasive herbaceous and grass cover contained a higher abundance of space web-weaving and hunting spiders, respectively. Spider species richness and total invertebrate abundance also increased with greater invasive grass cover. Still, these trends were driven by just two invasive plant species, garlic mustard and Japanese stiltgrass, both of which have previously been shown to provide structural benefits to native invertebrate taxa. While these two species may improve the structural component of understory forest habitat, many invertebrate groups were not significantly correlated with other prevalent invasive plants and one species, mock strawberry, negatively affected the abundance of certain insect taxa. Particularly in forests with reduced native plant structure, invasive plant management must be conducted with consideration for holistic habitat quality, including both plant palatability and structure.

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Variation in substrate chemistry along microtopographical and water-chemistry gradients in peatlands

Canadian Journal of Botany ◽

10.1139/b84-023 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 62 (1) ◽

pp. 142-153 ◽

Cited By ~ 70

Author(s):

E. F. Karlin ◽

L. C. Bliss

Keyword(s):

Water Chemistry ◽

Community Composition ◽

Plant Species ◽

Plant Community ◽

Biotic Interactions ◽

Plant Community Composition ◽

Parallel Increase ◽

Substrate Moisture ◽

Study Sites ◽

Minerotrophic Peatland

A broad range of water chemistry (pH 3.5–8.2; Ca, 2–120 mg L−1) and substrate chemistry (pH 3.3–7.8; Ca, 4–138 mequiv. 100 g−1) exists among peatlands present in central Alberta. The six peatlands comprising the main study sites included strongly minerotrophic, moderately minerotrophic, and weakly minerotrophic systems. Variation in substrate chemistry along the hollow to hummock gradient in strongly and moderately minerotrophic peatlands was high (ranging from highly minerotrophic peats to ombrotrophic peats), while variation in substrate chemistry in weakly minerotrophic peatlands was slight (weakly minerotrophic peats to ombrotrophic peats) along the same gradient. Substrate chemistry and plant community composition of hollow and low-hummock communities varied considerably along the strongly minerotrophic to weakly minerotrophic peatland gradient. In contrast, the chemistry of the upper peat layers of the hummocks and hummock plant community composition were similar in all of the peatlands studied. Distributional patterns of plant species in weakly minerotrophic peatlands are not primarily in response to gradients in substrate chemistry but arise from gradients in substrate moisture and biotic interactions. This is not the case for strongly and moderately minerotrophic systems, where gradients in substrate chemistry may also strongly influence plant species distribution. The increase in complexity of the substrate environment in peatlands along the weakly minerotrophic to strongly minerotrophic gradient is reflected by a parallel increase in plant species diversity.

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Molecular Characterization of Bacterial Community Composition in the Rhizosphere of Invasive Plant Species Amur Honeysuckle (<i>Lonicera maackii</i>) in an Urban Wetland Forest

Advances in Microbiology ◽

10.4236/aim.2021.119035 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (09) ◽

pp. 469-487

Author(s):

Azeem Ahmad ◽

Samina Akbar

Keyword(s):

Bacterial Community ◽

Molecular Characterization ◽

Community Composition ◽

Plant Species ◽

Invasive Plant ◽

Bacterial Community Composition ◽

Lonicera Maackii ◽

Invasive Plant Species ◽

Urban Wetland

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Shifts in plant community composition weaken the negative effect of nitrogen addition on community-level arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonization

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2020.0483 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 287 (1927) ◽

pp. 20200483

Author(s):

Yawen Lu ◽

Xiang Liu ◽

Fei Chen ◽

Shurong Zhou

Keyword(s):

Community Composition ◽

Plant Species ◽

Plant Community ◽

Direct Effect ◽

Indirect Effect ◽

Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽

Nitrogen Addition ◽

Community Level ◽

Colonization Rate ◽

Plant Community Composition

Nitrogen addition affects plant–arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) association greatly. However, although the direct effect of nitrogen addition on AMF colonization has received investigation, its indirect effect through shifts in plant community composition has never been quantified. Based on a 7-year nitrogen addition experiment in an alpine meadow of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, we investigated the effects of nitrogen addition on plant community, AMF diversity and colonization, and disentangled the direct and indirect effects of nitrogen addition on community AMF colonization. At plant species level, nitrogen addition significantly decreased root colonization rate and altered AMF community composition, but with no significant effect on AMF richness. At plant community level, plant species richness and AMF colonization rate decreased with nitrogen addition. Plant species increasing in abundance after nitrogen addition were those with higher AMF colonization rates in natural conditions, resulting in an increased indirect effect induced by alternation in plant community composition with nitrogen addition, whereas the direct effect was negative and decreased with nitrogen addition. Overall, we illustrate the effect of nitrogen addition and plant species in influencing the AMF diversity, demonstrate how shifts in plant community composition (indirect effect) weaken the negative direct effect of nitrogen addition on community-level AMF colonization rate, and emphasize the importance of plant community-mediated mechanisms in regulating ecosystem functions.

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Impacts from invasive plant species and their control on the plant community and belowground ecosystem at Rocky Mountain National Park, USA

Applied Soil Ecology ◽

10.1016/j.apsoil.2005.01.010 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 132-141 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Cynthia Pritekel ◽

Amanda Whittemore-Olson ◽

Neil Snow ◽

John C. Moore

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Plant Community ◽

National Park ◽

Invasive Plant ◽

Rocky Mountain ◽

Rocky Mountain National Park ◽

Invasive Plant Species

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Differences in spatial autocorrelation (SAc), plant species richness and diversity, and plant community composition in grazed and ungrazed grasslands along a moisture gradient, North Dakota, USA

Applied Vegetation Science ◽

10.1111/avsc.12040 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 53-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Lindsey M. Meyers ◽

Edward S. DeKeyser ◽

Jack E. Norland

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Spatial Autocorrelation ◽

North Dakota ◽

Community Composition ◽

Plant Species ◽

Plant Community ◽

Plant Species Richness ◽

Moisture Gradient ◽

Plant Community Composition ◽

Species Richness And Diversity

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Asymmetrical Warming Between Elevations May Result in Similar Plant Community Composition Between Elevations in Alpine Grasslands

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution ◽

10.3389/fevo.2021.757943 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Jiangwei Wang ◽

Chengqun Yu ◽

Gang Fu

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Community Composition ◽

Plant Species ◽

Plant Community ◽

Environmental Temperature ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Plant Community Composition ◽

Alpine Grasslands ◽

Phylogenetic Composition ◽

Moisture Conditions

Asymmetrical warming between elevations is a common phenomenon and warming magnitude increases with increasing elevations on the Tibetan Plateau, which in turn may reduce temperature differences between elevations. However, it is still unclear how such phenomenon will affect plant community composition in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, in this study, we performed an experiment at three elevations (i.e., 4,300 m, 4,500 m, and 4,700 m) in alpine grasslands, the Northern Tibetan Plateau since May, 2010. Open top chambers were established at the elevations 4,500 m and 4,700 m. Plant species and phylogenetic composition were investigated in August, 2011–2019. There were no significant differences in plant species and phylogenetic composition, environmental temperature and moisture conditions between the elevation 4,300 m under non-warming conditions and the elevation 4,500 m under warming conditions in 2019. There were also no significant differences in plant species composition, environmental temperature and moisture conditions between the elevation 4,500 m under non-warming conditions and the elevation 4,700 m under warming conditions in 2019. Therefore, the narrowing temperature differences between elevations may result in plant community composition between elevations tending to be similar in alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau under future elevational asymmetrical warming.

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