Alien plant fitness is limited by functional trade-offs rather than a long-term increase in competitive effects of native communities
Data files
Sep 08, 2023 version files 85.84 KB
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Brendel_Schurr_Sheppard_2023_lambda0.e0.f0.lambda1.csv
82.45 KB
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README.md
3.39 KB
Abstract
Alien plants experience novel abiotic conditions and interactions with native communities in the introduced area. Intra- and interspecific selection on functional traits in the new environment may lead to increased population growth with time since introduction (residence time). However, selection regimes might differ depending on the invaded habitat. Additionally, in high-competition habitats, a build-up of biotic resistance of native species due to accumulation of eco-evolutionary experience to aliens over time may limit invasion success. We tested if the effect of functional traits and the population dynamics of aliens depends on interspecific competition with native plant communities. We conducted a multi-species experiment with 40 annual Asteraceae that differ in residence time in Germany. We followed their population growth in monocultures and in interspecific competition with an experienced native community (varying co-existence times between focals and community). To more robustly test our findings, we used a naïve community that never co-existed with the focals. We found that high seed mass decreased population growth in monocultures but tended to increase population growth under high interspecific competition. We found no evidence for a build-up of competition-mediated biotic resistance by the experienced community over time. Instead, population growth of the focal species was similarly inhibited by the experienced and naïve community. By comparing the effect of experienced and naïve communities on population dynamics over two years across a large set of species with a high variation in functional traits and residence time, this study advances the understanding of the long-term dynamics of plant invasions. In our study system, population growth of alien species was not limited by an increase of competitive effects by native communities (one aspect of biotic resistance) over time. Instead, invasion success of alien plants may be limited because initial spread in low-competition habitats requires different traits than establishment in high-competition habitats.
README of “Data from: Alien plant fitness is limited by functional trade-offs rather than a long-term increase in competitive effects of native communities”
General description of the data files:
General information: The data file “Brendel_Schurr_Sheppard_2023_lambda0.e0.f0.lambda1.csv” contains data which was collected from a common garden experiment at a field station of the University of Hohenheim (48°42’45.2”N, 9°11’23.6”E) in Stuttgart, Germany, during the growing seasons 2016 and 2017. The data file “Brendel_Schurr_Sheppard_2023_AsteraceaePhylogeny” contains the phylogenetic information of the Asteraceae study species extracted from the Daphne Phylogeny (Durka & Michalski 2012, Ecology 93).
One line represents: One experimental mesocosm for the data file “Brendel_Schurr_Sheppard_2023_lambda0.e0.f0.lambda1.csv”.
NA-values in the dataset refer to mesocosms, species, or populations, for which no data is available.
Variables: “Brendel_Schurr_Sheppard_2023_lambda0.e0.f0.lambda1.csv”
| Name | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|
| aster.id | NA | Asteraceae study species identity following the nomenclature of The Plant List |
| aster.pop | NA | Asteraceae study species population (e.g., 24_A = capital letter indicates seed material from a wild population; 53_Hohenheim = city name indicates seed material from the respective botanical garden) |
| daphne.id | NA | Asteraceae study species name as in Daphne database (Durka & Michalski 2012 Ecology) |
| pot.id | NA | number of the pot/mesocosm |
| block | NA | experimental block, where the mesocosm was located |
| mrt | years | minimum residence time of the Asteraceae study species measured as the difference between the first record in the wild and the starting year of the experiment (2016) |
| community | NA | indication of the treatment: monoculture (1.MONO), experienced Central European community (2.CE), and naïve North American community (3.NAm) |
| lambda0 | NA | Growth rate of the seed population measured as the number of seeds produced per mesocosm by the end of 2016 divided by the number of seeds initially added to the mesocosm (i.e. 20 seeds) |
| e0 | NA | establishment rate measured as the number of individuals per mesocosm by the end of 2016 divided by the number of seeds initially added to the mesocosm (20) |
| n1 | NA | number of individuals per mesocosm by the end of 2016 |
| s0 | NA | number of seeds initially added to the mesocosm (20) |
| f0 | NA | fecundity measured as the number of seeds per mesocosm by the end of 2016 divided by the number of individuals per mesocosm by the end of 2016 |
| lambda1 | Growth rate of the seed population measured as the number of seeds produced per mesocosm by the end of 2017 divided by the number of seeds produced per mesocosm by the end of 2016 | |
| seed.mass | mg | mass of an individual seed measured at population level before the start of the experiment (see section “Functional trait measurement”) |
| height.max | cm | maximum height/height at maturity measured at population level on transplanted individuals (see section “Functional trait measurement”) |
| sla | mm2/mg | specific leaf area measured at population level on transplanted individuals (see section “Functional trait measurement”) |
Applications used: R-software for statistical computing.