Data from: Commonness and rarity of alien and native plant species – the relative roles of intraspecific competition and plant–soil feedback
Data files
Jan 12, 2016 version files
166.06 KB
Abstract
The success of invasive alien and common native species may be explained by the same underlying mechanisms. Differences in intraspecific competition as well as differences in plant–soil feedback have been put forward as potential determinants of plant success. We teased apart the relative roles of competition and plant–soil feedback in a greenhouse experiment with 30 common and rare alien and native species from nine plant families. We tested whether plant biomass decreased less for common than rare species, regardless of origin, when grown at higher relative frequencies (1, 3 or 6 out of 9 plants per pot) in a community and in soil previously conditioned by the same species at different frequencies (0, 1, 3 or 6 out of 9 plants per pot) in an orthogonal design for these two factors. Plant survival decreased slightly, but non-significantly, for all species when grown in soil previously occupied by conspecifics. Among surviving plants, we found a decrease in biomass with increasing intraspecific competition across all species (regardless of origin or commonness), and alien species were more negatively affected by previous high plant frequency than native species, but only marginally significantly so. Our findings suggest that, while intraspecific competition limits individual biomass in a density-dependent manner, these effects do not depend on species origin or commonness. Notably, alien species but not natives showed a decrease in performance when grown in soil pre-conditioned with a higher frequency of conspecifics. In conclusion, soil-borne pathogen accumulation might be weak in its effects on plant performance compared to intraspecific competition, with neither being clearly linked to species commonness.
Mueller et al. Commonness and rarity of alien and native plant species data file
The file contains the full data set of:
Commonness and rarity of alien and native plant species - The roles of intraspecific competition and plant-soil feedback, Müller, Gregor, van Kleunen, Mark, Dawson, Wayne
The columns:
ID: simple row number column
GH: greenhouse (A,B,C)
Table: Table number within a greenhouse
Phase 1: Target species planted in phase 1
Phase1 code: Code used for pots in the greenhouse
wt_communityPh1: Total weight of the community plants in phase 1
wt_target_perC_Ph1: Per captia weight of the target plants in phase 1
wt_totalPh1: Total biomass per pot in phase 1
initial_phase1_density: Initial planting densities of target plants in phase 1
initial_phleum ph1: initial planting density of Phleum plants in phase 1
Phase 2: Target species planted in phase 2
Phase 2 code: Code for the respective pot
initial_dens_ph2: Initial planting density of target plants in phase2
Initial_phleum_ph2: Initial planting density of Phleum plants in phase 2
GH4: Indicator wether pots were shifted in a fourth greenhouse at the end
X: x coordinate of pot on a greenhouse table
Y: y coordinate of a pot on a greenhouse table
Status: status of species (native, alien) in Germany
Family: family of each species
Commonness: number of grid cells in the floraweb database that a species occurs in
wt_target_ph2: weight of the target species in phase 2
Nbr_Targets_ph_2: Number of targets in phase 2
phase1_density: Planting densities of targets in phase 1
wt_galium_ph2: weight of Galium plants in phase 2
Nbr_Galium_ph_2: Number of Galium plants in phase 2
wt_phleum_ph2: weight of Phelum plants in phase 2
Nbr__Phleum-Ph_2: Number of Phleum plants in phase 2
wt_ranunculus_ph2: weight of Ranunculus plants in phase 2
Nbr_Ranunculus_ph2: Number of Ranunculus plants in phase 2
wt_total_restcommunity_ph2: weight of the restcommunity (Phleum +Galium+Ranunculus)
Nbr_plants_totalpot: total number of plants per pot (target+community)
perC_wt_targetph2: Per Capita weight target in phase 2
survivors: number of targets surviving until harvest in ph 2
deathbintarget: binary survival to select only pots with full set of target species in ph2
DatafileOikos.txt
