Variation in phenology and overall performance traits can help to explain the plant invasion process amongst Mediterranean ecosystems

By

Martín-Forés, Irene
Casado, Miguel A. (Miguel Angel)
Castro, Isabel
Pozo Lira, Alejandro del
Molina-Montenegro, Marco
De Miguel, José M
Acosta-Gallo, Belén

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2018

Original Publication

NeoBiota : advancing research on alien species and biological invasions

Volume

41

Pages

67-89

Subjects

Asteraceae , Biological invasions , biomass , common garden , Hypochaeris glabra , invasiveness , Leontodon saxatilis , Phenology , Precipitation , range expansion , seed output , survival , Trifolium glomeratum

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sophia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.41.29965

 

Abstract

Plant traits such as phenological development, growth rate, stress tolerance and seeds production may play an important role in the process of acclimatisation to new environments for introduced plants. Experiments that distinguish phenotypic plasticity from ecotypic differentiation would allow an understanding of the role of plant traits in the invasion process. We quantified the variation in phenological and overall performance traits associated with the invasion process for three herbaceous species native to Spain and invasive to Chile (Trifoliumglomeratum, Hypochaerisglabra and Leontodonsaxatilis). We grew plants from native and exotic populations along rainfall gradients in outdoor common gardens, located in the native and the introduced ranges and measured plant survival, phenology (days to flowering), biomass and seed output. Days to flowering was positively correlated with precipitation of the origin population for T.glomeratum and the native populations of H.glabra, but this pattern was not adaptive, as it was not associated with an increase in performance traits of these species. Phenology may instead reflect ecotypic differentiation to the environmental conditions of the original populations. Comparison between ranges (i.e. performance in both common gardens) was only possible for L.saxatilis. This species showed little variation in phenology and both native and exotic populations had higher fitness in the introduced range. This suggests that plasticity enhances invasiveness through increased propagule pressure in the novel environment. Our findings highlight the utility of common garden experiments in examining patterns of phenological and performance traits that relate to species invasiveness.