scholarly journals Evolution under changing climates: climatic niche stasis despite rapid evolution in a non-native plant

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1767) ◽  
pp. 20131446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake M. Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Common Garden ◽  
Flowering Phenology ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Native Range ◽  
Niche Modelling ◽  
Climatic Niche ◽  
Lactuca Serriola

A topic of great current interest is the capacity of populations to adapt genetically to rapidly changing climates, for example by evolving the timing of life-history events, but this is challenging to address experimentally. I use a plant invasion as a model system to tackle this question by combining molecular markers, a common garden experiment and climatic niche modelling. This approach reveals that non-native Lactuca serriola originates primarily from Europe, a climatic subset of its native range, with low rates of admixture from Asia. It has rapidly refilled its climatic niche in the new range, associated with the evolution of flowering phenology to produce clines along climate gradients that mirror those across the native range. Consequently, some non-native plants have evolved development times and grow under climates more extreme than those found in Europe, but not among populations from the native range as a whole. This suggests that many plant populations can adapt rapidly to changed climatic conditions that are already within the climatic niche space occupied by the species elsewhere in its range, but that evolution to conditions outside of this range is more difficult. These findings can also help to explain the prevalence of niche conservatism among non-native species.

scholarly journals Earlier phenology of a nonnative plant increases impacts on native competitors

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (13) ◽  
pp. 6199-6204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake M. Alexander ◽  
Jonathan M. Levine
Keyword(s):  
Species Interactions ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Source Region ◽  
Common Garden ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Early Flowering ◽  
Competitive Effects ◽  
Lactuca Serriola ◽  
Grassland Plants

Adaptation to climate is expected to increase the performance of invasive species and their community-level impacts. However, while the fitness gains from adaptation should, in general, promote invader competitive ability, empirical demonstrations of this prediction are scarce. Furthermore, climate adaptation, in the form of altered timing of life cycle transitions, should affect the phenological overlap between nonnative and native competitors, with potentially large, but poorly tested, impacts on native species persistence. We evaluated these predictions by growing native California grassland plants in competition with nonnativeLactuca serriola, a species that flowers earlier in parts of its nonnative range that are drier than its putative European source region. In common garden experiments in southern California withL. serriolapopulations differing in phenology, plants originating from arid climates bolted up to 48 d earlier than plants from more mesic climates, and selection favored early flowering, supporting an adaptive basis for the phenology cline. The per capita competitive effects ofL. serriolafrom early flowering populations on five early flowering native species were greater than the effects ofL. serriolafrom later flowering populations. Consequently, the ability of the native species to increase when rare in competition withL. serriola, as inferred from field-parameterized competition models, declined with earlierL. serriolaphenology. Indeed, changes toL. serriolaphenology affected whether or not one native species was predicted to persist in competition withL. serriola. Our results suggest that evolution in response to new climatic conditions can have important consequences for species interactions, and enhance the impacts of biological invasions on natural communities.

scholarly journals Climate modifies response of non-native and native species richness to nutrient enrichment

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1694) ◽  
pp. 20150273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habacuc Flores-Moreno ◽  
Peter B. Reich ◽  
Eric M. Lind ◽  
Lauren L. Sullivan ◽  
Eric W. Seabloom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Nutrient Enrichment ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Niche Partitioning ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Nutrient Addition ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Native Species Richness

Ecosystem eutrophication often increases domination by non-natives and causes displacement of native taxa. However, variation in environmental conditions may affect the outcome of interactions between native and non-native taxa in environments where nutrient supply is elevated. We examined the interactive effects of eutrophication, climate variability and climate average conditions on the success of native and non-native plant species using experimental nutrient manipulations replicated at 32 grassland sites on four continents. We hypothesized that effects of nutrient addition would be greatest where climate was stable and benign, owing to reduced niche partitioning. We found that the abundance of non-native species increased with nutrient addition independent of climate; however, nutrient addition increased non-native species richness and decreased native species richness, with these effects dampened in warmer or wetter sites. Eutrophication also altered the time scale in which grassland invasion responded to climate, decreasing the importance of long-term climate and increasing that of annual climate. Thus, climatic conditions mediate the responses of native and non-native flora to nutrient enrichment. Our results suggest that the negative effect of nutrient addition on native abundance is decoupled from its effect on richness, and reduces the time scale of the links between climate and compositional change.

scholarly journals Herbivory may promote a non-native plant invasion at low but not high latitudes

2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (5) ◽  
pp. 819-827 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinmin Lu ◽  
Minyan He ◽  
Saichun Tang ◽  
Yuqing Wu ◽  
Xu Shao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Field Survey ◽  
Common Garden ◽  
Middle Latitude ◽  
Plant Invasions ◽  
Alternanthera Philoxeroides ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Low Latitude

Abstract Background and Aims The strengths of biotic interactions such as herbivory are expected to decrease with increasing latitude for native species. To what extent this applies to invasive species and what the consequences of this variation are for competition among native and invasive species remain unexplored. Here, herbivore impacts on the invasive plant Alternanthera philoxeroides and its competition with the native congener A. sessilis were estimated across latitudes in China. Methods An common garden experiment spanning ten latitudinal degrees was conducted to test how herbivore impacts on A. philoxeroides and A. sessilis, and competition between them change with latitude. In addition, a field survey was conducted from 21°N to 36.8°N to test whether A. philoxeroides invasiveness changes with latitude in nature as a result of variations in herbivory. Key Results In the experiment, A. sessilis cover was significantly higher than A. philoxeroides cover when they competed in the absence of herbivores, but otherwise their cover was comparable at low latitude. However, A. philoxeroides cover was always higher on average than A. sessilis cover at middle latitude. At high latitude, only A. sessilis emerged in the second year. Herbivore abundance decreased with latitude and A. philoxeroides emerged earlier than A. sessilis at middle latitude. In the field survey, the ratio of A. philoxeroides to A. sessilis cover was hump shaped with latitude. Conclusion These results indicate that herbivory may promote A. philoxeroides invasion only at low latitude by altering the outcome of competition in favour of the invader and point to the importance of other factors, such as earlier emergence, in A. philoxeroides invasion at higher latitudes. These results suggest that the key factors promoting plant invasions might change with latitude, highlighting the importance of teasing apart the roles of multiple factors in plant invasions within a biogeographic framework.

scholarly journals Native and alien species suffer from late arrival, while negative effects of multiple alien species on natives vary

Oecologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktoria Ferenc ◽  
Christian Merkert ◽  
Frederik Zilles ◽  
Christine S. Sheppard
Keyword(s):  
Alien Species ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Arrival Time ◽  
Common Garden ◽  
Priority Effects ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Late Arrival ◽  
Species Performance

AbstractOngoing globalisation and climate change are causing plant species to invade new habitats and thereby alter biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Since numbers of plant invasions continue to increase globally, it is crucial to investigate the effects of multiple co-occurring alien species on native communities. Furthermore, priority effects due to the earlier emergence of certain species affecting fitness of later arriving species can shape community structure and affect native species performance. We investigate in a common garden pot experiment the interactions among five alien-native species pairs. First we focus on the effect of growing with either one or two alien neighbour species on a native plant, second we alter the arrival time of the alien or native neighbour by 3 weeks. Generally, native species performance decreased when surrounded by two alien species compared to only one, although the magnitude of this effect varied depending on species, with one species even performing better with alien neighbours than in monoculture. Species performance greatly decreased when arriving second in the pot, for both native and alien species. In contrast, alien species tended to benefit more from arriving early. Given that we studied annual ruderal species, their potentially lower competitive ability might explain why we detected negative effects of late arrival. We highlight the need to further elucidate underlying mechanisms of small-scale invasion dynamics to achieve generalisations concerning the response of multiple alien and native plants given their species-specific differences in response to neighbour species and arrival time.

scholarly journals A test of native plant adaptation more than one century after introduction of the invasive Carpobrotus edulis to the NW Iberian Peninsula

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos García ◽  
Josefina G. Campoy ◽  
Rubén Retuerto
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Genetic Variance ◽  
Common Garden ◽  
Reciprocal Effects ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Carpobrotus Edulis ◽  
Nw Iberia

Abstract Background Although the immediate consequences of biological invasions on ecosystems and conservation have been widely studied, the long-term effects remain unclear. Invaders can either cause the extinction of native species or become integrated in the new ecosystems, thus increasing the diversity of these ecosystems and the services that they provide. The final balance of invasions will depend on how the invaders and native plants co-evolve. For a better understanding of such co-evolution, case studies that consider the changes that occur in both invasive and native species long after the introduction of the invader are especially valuable. In this work, we studied the ecological consequences of the more than one century old invasion of NW Iberia by the African plant Carpobrotus edulis. We conducted a common garden experiment to compare the reciprocal effects of competition between Carpobrotus plants from the invaded area or from the native African range and two native Iberian plant species (Artemisia crithmifolia and Helichrysum picardii) from populations exposed or unexposed to the invader. Results Exposure of H. picardii populations to C. edulis increased their capacity to repress the growth of Carpobrotus. The repression specifically affected the Carpobrotus from the invader populations, not those from the African native area. No effects of exposition were detected in the case of A. crithmifolia. C. edulis plants from the invader populations had higher growth than plants from the species' African area of origin. Conclusions We found that adaptive responses of natives to invaders can occur in the long term, but we only found evidence for adaptive responses in one of the two species studied. This might be explained by known differences between the two species in the structure of genetic variance and gene flow between subpopulations. The overall changes observed in the invader Carpobrotus are consistent with adaptation after invasion.

scholarly journals Heritable plant phenotypes track light and herbivory levels at fine spatial scales

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.T. Humphrey ◽  
A.D. Gloss ◽  
J. Frazier ◽  
A. C. Nelson–Dittrich ◽  
S. Faries ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Common Garden ◽  
Flowering Phenology ◽  
Adaptive Divergence ◽  
Shade Avoidance ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Habitat Mosaic ◽  
Resistance To Herbivory ◽  
Common Gardens

ABSTRACTThe biotic and the abiotic environment play a major role in shaping plant phenotypes and their geographic distributions. However, little is known about the extent to which plant phenotypes match local patterns of herbivory across fine-grained habitat mosaics, despite the strong effect of herbivory on plant fitness. Through a reciprocal transplant-common garden experiment with clonally propagated rhizomes, we tested for local phenotypic differentiation in bittercress (Brassicaceae: Cardamine cordifolia) plants collected across an ecotonal habitat mosaic. We found that bittercress in sunny meadows (high herbivory) and shaded understories (low herbivory) have diverged in heritable growth and herbivore resistance phenotypes. The expression of these differences was habitat dependent, mirroring patterns of adaptive divergence in phenotypic plasticity between plant populations in meadow and understory habitats at broader geographic scales, and showed no evidence for a constraint imposed by growth–defense tradeoffs. Most notably, plants derived from shade habitats exhibited a weaker shade-induced elongation response (i.e., shade avoidance syndrome, SAS) and reduced resistance to herbivory, relative to plants derived from sun habitats, when both were grown in shade common gardens. Greenhouse experiments revealed that divergent SAS phenotypes in shade conditions were expressed in offspring grown from seed as well. Finally, we observed partially non-overlapping flowering phenology between habitat-types in the field, which may be at least one factor that helps to reinforce habitat-specific phenotypic divergence. Altogether, our study illuminates how a native plant may cope with overlapping biotic and abiotic stressors across a fine-grained habitat mosaic.

scholarly journals Suitability of native milkweed (Asclepias) species versus cultivars for supporting monarch butterflies and bees in urban gardens

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e9823
Author(s):  
Adam M. Baker ◽  
Carl T. Redmond ◽  
Stephen B. Malcolm ◽  
Daniel A. Potter
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Larval Growth ◽  
Danaus Plexippus ◽  
Common Garden ◽  
Floral Display ◽  
Native Bees ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Urban Gardens ◽  
Monarch Butterflies

Public interest in ecological landscaping and gardening is fueling a robust market for native plants. Most plants available to consumers through the horticulture trade are cultivated forms that have been selected for modified flowers or foliage, compactness, or other ornamental characteristics. Depending on their traits, some native plant cultivars seem to support pollinators, specialist insect folivores, and insect-based vertebrate food webs as effectively as native plant species, whereas others do not. There is particular need for information on whether native cultivars can be as effective as true or “wild-type” native species for supporting specialist native insects of conservation concern. Herein we compared the suitability of native milkweed species and their cultivars for attracting and supporting one such insect, the iconic monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus L.), as well as native bees in urban pollinator gardens. Wild-type Asclepias incarnata L. (swamp milkweed) and Asclepias tuberosa L. (butterfly milkweed) and three additional cultivars of each that vary in stature, floral display, and foliage color were grown in a replicated common garden experiment at a public arboretum. We monitored the plants for colonization by wild monarchs, assessed their suitability for supporting monarch larvae in greenhouse trials, measured their defensive characteristics (leaf trichome density, latex, and cardenolide levels), and compared the proportionate abundance and diversity of bee families and genera visiting their blooms. Significantly more monarch eggs and larvae were found on A. incarnata than A. tuberosa in both years, but within each milkweed group, cultivars were colonized to the same extent as wild types. Despite some differences in defense allocation, all cultivars were as suitable as wild-type milkweeds in supporting monarch larval growth. Five bee families and 17 genera were represented amongst the 2,436 total bees sampled from blooms of wild-type milkweeds and their cultivars in the replicated gardens. Bee assemblages of A. incarnata were dominated by Apidae (Bombus, Xylocopa spp., and Apis mellifera), whereas A. tuberosa attracted relatively more Halictidae (especially Lasioglossum spp.) and Megachilidae. Proportionate abundance of bee families and genera was generally similar for cultivars and their respective wild types. This study suggests that, at least in small urban gardens, milkweed cultivars can be as suitable as their parental species for supporting monarch butterflies and native bees.

scholarly journals Invasion genetics of the mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus): recent anthropogenic introduction in Iberia

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teófilo Morim ◽  
Grant R. Bigg ◽  
Pedro M. Madeira ◽  
Jorge Palma ◽  
David D. Duvernell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Fundulus Heteroclitus ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Ebro Delta ◽  
Benthic Habitat ◽  
Native Range ◽  
Niche Modelling ◽  
Invasion Genetics ◽  
Invasion Pathway

Human activities such as trade and transport have increased considerably in the last decades, greatly facilitating the introduction and spread of non-native species at a global level. In the Iberian Peninsula, Fundulus heteroclitus, a small euryhaline coastal fish with short dispersal, was found for the first time in the mid-1970s. Since then, F. heteroclitus has undergone range expansions, colonizing the southern region of Portugal, southwestern coast of Spain and the Ebro Delta in the Mediterranean Sea. Cytochrome b sequences were used to elucidate the species invasion pathway in Iberia. Three Iberian locations (Faro, Cádiz and Ebro Delta) and 13 other locations along the native range of F. heteroclitus in North America were sampled. Results revealed a single haplotype, common to all invasive populations, which can be traced to the northern region of the species’ native range. We posit that the origin of the founder individuals is between New York and Nova Scotia. Additionally, the lack of genetic structure within Iberia is consistent with a recent invasion scenario and a strong founder effect. We suggest the most probable introduction vector is associated with the aquarium trade. We further discuss the hypothesis of a second human-mediated introduction responsible for the establishment of individuals in the Ebro Delta supported by the absence of adequate muddy habitats linking Cádiz and the Ebro Delta. Although the species has a high tolerance to salinity and temperature, ecological niche modelling indicates that benthic habitat constraints prevent along-shore colonisation suggesting that such expansions would need to be aided by human release.

Understory responses to fire and artificial seeding in an eastern Cascades Abies grandis forest, U.S.A.

1999 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1393-1401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania L Schoennagel ◽  
Donald M Waller
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Plant Cover ◽  
Native Grasses ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Abies Grandis ◽  
Lactuca Serriola ◽  
Epilobium Angustifolium ◽  
Eastern Cascades ◽  
Conifer Tree ◽  
Total Plant

To mitigate erosion after fire, land managers often seed non-native grasses onto burned slopes. To assess how post-fire seeding affects plant recovery, we compared areas that were either unseeded or artificially seeded after high-intensity fire in a dry Abies grandis (Dougl.) Lindl. forest in the northeastern Cascades. Seeding with a mix of non-native grasses and a legume significantly reduced the cover of native plants and shifted patterns of relative abundance after 2 years. Although seeding did not significantly affect total cover or native species richness, it reduced overall native plant cover by 47%. Species that recolonize via wind-dispersed seeds (e.g., Epilobium angustifolium L., Lactuca serriola L., and Arenaria macrophylla Hook.), species with long-lived seeds that germinate after fire (e.g., Ceanothus velutinus Dougl.), and species with wide successional amplitudes that resprout after fire (e.g., Apocynum androsaemifolium L. and Salix scouleriana Barratt) all declined steeply in cover on seeded plots. In addition, conifer seedlings were only half as abundant on seeded plots. As seeding after fire does not boost total plant cover and limits conifer tree establishment on the study area, it appears to do little to reduce the risk of soil erosion. It also appears to inhibit native shrub and herb re-establishment. These substantial effects on native species appear to alter plant communities well beyond the life of the seeded species.

Global Assessment of Climatic Niche Shifts in Three Rumex Species

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Carlin ◽  
Jennifer Bufford ◽  
Philip Hulme ◽  
William Godsoe
Keyword(s):  
Species Distributions ◽  
Niche Overlap ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Niche Shift ◽  
Native Range ◽  
Weed Species ◽  
Climatic Niche ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Introduced Range ◽  
Niche Shifts

Abstract Climatic niche shifts occur when species occupy different climates in the introduced range than in their native range. We know that climatic niche shifts are common occurrences, however we do not currently understand whether climatic niche shifts can consistently be predicted across the globe. Using three congeneric weed species, we investigate whether the known presence of a climatic niche shift in one range can help predict a species’ distribution in other ranges. We consider whether data either from other ranges or from closely related species can help predict whether climatic niche shifts will occur. We compared the climatic conditions occupied by Rumex obtusifolius, R. crispus, and R. conglomeratus between their native range (Eurasia) and three different introduced ranges (North America, Australia, New Zealand). We consider metrics of niche overlap, expansion, unfilling, pioneering, and similarity to determine whether i) climatic niche shifts have occurred and ii) climatic niche shifts were consistent across ranges and congeners. We found that the presence and direction of climatic niche shifts is inconsistent across ranges for all three species. Within an introduced range, however, niche shifts were similar between species. Despite this, species distributions outside of their native range could not be reliably predicted by the distributions of congeners in either their native or introduced ranges. This study is the first of its kind to consider niche shifts across multiple introduced ranges and species, highlighting new challenges in predicting species distributions when species undergo climatic niche shifts.

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