Contrasting functional responses of non-native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradient
ABSTRACT One hypothesized invasion strategy (“try-harder”) predicts that invaders exhibit functional traits that are better adjusted to the environment than native species. Alternatively, the “join-the-locals” hypothesis predicts trait convergence between invasive and native species due to environme...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sociedade Botânica do Brasil
2022-02-01
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| Series: | Acta Botânica Brasílica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-33062021000900683&tlng=en |
| _version_ | 1818894559075106816 |
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| author | Loïc Gillerot Daniel Negreiros Newton P. U. Barbosa Fernando A.O. Silveira Luiza F. A. de Paula |
| author_facet | Loïc Gillerot Daniel Negreiros Newton P. U. Barbosa Fernando A.O. Silveira Luiza F. A. de Paula |
| author_sort | Loïc Gillerot |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT One hypothesized invasion strategy (“try-harder”) predicts that invaders exhibit functional traits that are better adjusted to the environment than native species. Alternatively, the “join-the-locals” hypothesis predicts trait convergence between invasive and native species due to environmental filtering with increasing resource limitation. We hypothesized that invasions strategies shift from “try-harder” to “join-the-locals” with increasing elevation. We used an elevational gradient to detect possible trait convergences between alien invaders and native plant species in Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Poaceae. We found a significant trait convergence with elevation only in Asteraceae, suggesting a species-specific pattern, but also an important phenotypic variability of the alien invader. This supports the idea that the more resource-limited the environment, the more it filters out traits substantially diverging from the locally-adapted native community, thereby entailing a shift from “try-harder” to “join-the-locals” strategies. The invasive grass was also more acquisitive but did not exhibit any relation to the native community, supporting the “try-harder” hypothesis. The size of the invasive Fabaceae species decreased with elevation, mirroring the native Fabaceae species, but not the overall native community. Including more replicates and a thorough quantification of environmental conditions, offers a promising avenue for improving the understanding the seemingly idiosyncrasies of invasion pathways. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T18:30:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fa4751314aa84584b89bf87e807bddd3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1677-941X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T18:30:25Z |
| publishDate | 2022-02-01 |
| publisher | Sociedade Botânica do Brasil |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Botânica Brasílica |
| spelling | doaj.art-fa4751314aa84584b89bf87e807bddd32022-12-21T20:10:45ZengSociedade Botânica do BrasilActa Botânica Brasílica1677-941X2022-02-0135468368810.1590/0102-33062021abb0017Contrasting functional responses of non-native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradientLoïc Gillerothttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0699-4478Daniel Negreiroshttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4780-2284Newton P. U. Barbosahttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5040-9566Fernando A.O. Silveirahttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9700-7521Luiza F. A. de Paulahttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-3818-7363ABSTRACT One hypothesized invasion strategy (“try-harder”) predicts that invaders exhibit functional traits that are better adjusted to the environment than native species. Alternatively, the “join-the-locals” hypothesis predicts trait convergence between invasive and native species due to environmental filtering with increasing resource limitation. We hypothesized that invasions strategies shift from “try-harder” to “join-the-locals” with increasing elevation. We used an elevational gradient to detect possible trait convergences between alien invaders and native plant species in Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Poaceae. We found a significant trait convergence with elevation only in Asteraceae, suggesting a species-specific pattern, but also an important phenotypic variability of the alien invader. This supports the idea that the more resource-limited the environment, the more it filters out traits substantially diverging from the locally-adapted native community, thereby entailing a shift from “try-harder” to “join-the-locals” strategies. The invasive grass was also more acquisitive but did not exhibit any relation to the native community, supporting the “try-harder” hypothesis. The size of the invasive Fabaceae species decreased with elevation, mirroring the native Fabaceae species, but not the overall native community. Including more replicates and a thorough quantification of environmental conditions, offers a promising avenue for improving the understanding the seemingly idiosyncrasies of invasion pathways.http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-33062021000900683&tlng=encampo rupestreinvasive plantsjoin-the-localsOCBILplant functional traitsresource-limitationtry-harder |
| spellingShingle | Loïc Gillerot Daniel Negreiros Newton P. U. Barbosa Fernando A.O. Silveira Luiza F. A. de Paula Contrasting functional responses of non-native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradient Acta Botânica Brasílica campo rupestre invasive plants join-the-locals OCBIL plant functional traits resource-limitation try-harder |
| title | Contrasting functional responses of non-native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradient |
| title_full | Contrasting functional responses of non-native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradient |
| title_fullStr | Contrasting functional responses of non-native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradient |
| title_full_unstemmed | Contrasting functional responses of non-native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradient |
| title_short | Contrasting functional responses of non-native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradient |
| title_sort | contrasting functional responses of non native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradient |
| topic | campo rupestre invasive plants join-the-locals OCBIL plant functional traits resource-limitation try-harder |
| url | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-33062021000900683&tlng=en |
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