Skip to main content
Dryad

Herbivory and allelopathy contribute jointly to the diversity-invasibility relationship

Data files

Apr 26, 2024 version files 204.50 KB

Abstract

To construct experimental communities of different species richness (1, 2, 4 and 8 species), we used eight native species (Arctium lappa L., Patrinia villosa (Thunb.) Juss., Achyranthes bidentata Bl., Reynoutria japonica Houtt., Taraxacum mongolicum Hand.-Mazz., Plantago asiatica Ledeb., Platycodon grandiflorus (Jacq.) A. DC., Antenoron filiforme (Thunb.) Rob. et Vaut.). These species were chosen because they are common in natural shrub-grassland communities in the Zhejiang province, China, and two of them, P. villosa and A. bidentata, are usually very dominant in those communities. Solidago canadensis L. was selected as the invader.

In May 2017, we prepared 188 plots of 2 m × 2 m in a previous agricultural field that had been abandoned seven years earlier, in Luqiao (121°23′46.16″ E, 28°31′21.62″ N). During October to December 2016, the top 10 cm of the soil was removed to deplete the seed bank, and the remaining soil was ploughed and repeatedly rotovated to produce a fine soil. In March to April 2017, the plots were weeded three times to further deplete the seed bank. The experimental area was divided into four blocks of 47 plots. In each plot, we constructed monocultures for each of the eight species with one replicate each, six two-species mixtures of different compositions and with three replicates each, six four-species mixtures with different compositions and three replicates each, and one eight-species mixture with three replicates. Each native species was used in an equal number of plots at each species-richness level. When the invasion treatment started, we also established three monoculture plots of the invader (S. canadensis) to assess potential side effects of activated carbon application