Predicting invasion in grassland ecosystems: is exotic dominance the real embarrassment of richness?. (16th October 2013)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Predicting invasion in grassland ecosystems: is exotic dominance the real embarrassment of richness?. (16th October 2013)
- Main Title:
- Predicting invasion in grassland ecosystems: is exotic dominance the real embarrassment of richness?
- Authors:
- Seabloom, Eric W.
Borer, Elizabeth T.
Buckley, Yvonne
Cleland, Elsa E.
Davies, Kendi
Firn, Jennifer
Harpole, W. Stanley
Hautier, Yann
Lind, Eric
MacDougall, Andrew
Orrock, John L.
Prober, Suzanne M.
Adler, Peter
Alberti, Juan
Michael Anderson, T.
Bakker, Jonathan D.
Biederman, Lori A.
Blumenthal, Dana
Brown, Cynthia S.
Brudvig, Lars A.
Caldeira, Maria
Chu, Chengjin
Crawley, Michael J.
Daleo, Pedro
Damschen, Ellen I.
D'Antonio, Carla M.
DeCrappeo, Nicole M.
Dickman, Chris R.
Du, Guozhen
Fay, Philip A.
Frater, Paul
Gruner, Daniel S.
Hagenah, Nicole
Hector, Andrew
Helm, Aveliina
Hillebrand, Helmut
Hofmockel, Kirsten S.
Humphries, Hope C.
Iribarne, Oscar
Jin, Virginia L.
Kay, Adam
Kirkman, Kevin P.
Klein, Julia A.
Knops, Johannes M. H.
La Pierre, Kimberly J.
Ladwig, Laura M.
Lambrinos, John G.
Leakey, Andrew D. B.
Li, Qi
Li, Wei
McCulley, Rebecca
Melbourne, Brett
Mitchell, Charles E.
Moore, Joslin L.
Morgan, John
Mortensen, Brent
O'Halloran, Lydia R.
Pärtel, Meelis
Pascual, Jesús
Pyke, David A.
Risch, Anita C.
Salguero‐Gómez, Roberto
Sankaran, Mahesh
Schuetz, Martin
Simonsen, Anna
Smith, Melinda
Stevens, Carly
Sullivan, Lauren
Wardle, Glenda M.
Wolkovich, Elizabeth M.
Wragg, Peter D.
Wright, Justin
Yang, Louie
… (more) - Abstract:
- Abstract: Invasions have increased the size of regional species pools, but are typically assumed to reduce native diversity. However, global‐scale tests of this assumption have been elusive because of the focus on exotic species richness, rather than relative abundance. This is problematic because low invader richness can indicate invasion resistance by the native community or, alternatively, dominance by a single exotic species. Here, we used a globally replicated study to quantify relationships between exotic richness and abundance in grass‐dominated ecosystems in 13 countries on six continents, ranging from salt marshes to alpine tundra. We tested effects of human land use, native community diversity, herbivore pressure, and nutrient limitation on exotic plant dominance. Despite its widespread use, exotic richness was a poor proxy for exotic dominance at low exotic richness, because sites that contained few exotic species ranged from relatively pristine (low exotic richness and cover) to almost completely exotic‐dominated ones (low exotic richness but high exotic cover). Both exotic cover and richness were predicted by native plant diversity (native grass richness) and land use (distance to cultivation). Although climate was important for predicting both exotic cover and richness, climatic factors predicting cover (precipitation variability) differed from those predicting richness (maximum temperature and mean temperature in the wettest quarter). Herbivory and nutrientAbstract: Invasions have increased the size of regional species pools, but are typically assumed to reduce native diversity. However, global‐scale tests of this assumption have been elusive because of the focus on exotic species richness, rather than relative abundance. This is problematic because low invader richness can indicate invasion resistance by the native community or, alternatively, dominance by a single exotic species. Here, we used a globally replicated study to quantify relationships between exotic richness and abundance in grass‐dominated ecosystems in 13 countries on six continents, ranging from salt marshes to alpine tundra. We tested effects of human land use, native community diversity, herbivore pressure, and nutrient limitation on exotic plant dominance. Despite its widespread use, exotic richness was a poor proxy for exotic dominance at low exotic richness, because sites that contained few exotic species ranged from relatively pristine (low exotic richness and cover) to almost completely exotic‐dominated ones (low exotic richness but high exotic cover). Both exotic cover and richness were predicted by native plant diversity (native grass richness) and land use (distance to cultivation). Although climate was important for predicting both exotic cover and richness, climatic factors predicting cover (precipitation variability) differed from those predicting richness (maximum temperature and mean temperature in the wettest quarter). Herbivory and nutrient limitation did not predict exotic richness or cover. Exotic dominance was greatest in areas with low native grass richness at the site‐ or regional‐scale. Although this could reflect native grass displacement, a lack of biotic resistance is a more likely explanation, given that grasses comprise the most aggressive invaders. These findings underscore the need to move beyond richness as a surrogate for the extent of invasion, because this metric confounds monodominance with invasion resistance. Monitoring species' relative abundance will more rapidly advance our understanding of invasions. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Global change biology. Volume 19:Number 12(2013:Dec.)
- Journal:
- Global change biology
- Issue:
- Volume 19:Number 12(2013:Dec.)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 19, Issue 12 (2013)
- Year:
- 2013
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 12
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2013-0019-0012-0000
- Page Start:
- 3677
- Page End:
- 3687
- Publication Date:
- 2013-10-16
- Subjects:
- Climatic changes -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals
Troposphere -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals
Biodiversity conservation -- Periodicals
Eutrophication -- Periodicals
551.5 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/member/institutions/issuelist.asp?journal=gcb ↗
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1111/gcb.12370 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1354-1013
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 4195.358330
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 843.xml