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Herbaceous plant species invading natural areas tend to have stronger adaptive root foraging than other naturalized species

Keser, L.H.; Visser, E.J.W.; Dawson, W.; Song, Y.-B.; Yu, F.-H.; Fischer, M.; Dong, M.; van Kleunen, M.

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Authors

L.H. Keser

E.J.W. Visser

Y.-B. Song

F.-H. Yu

M. Fischer

M. Dong

M. van Kleunen



Abstract

Although plastic root-foraging responses are thought to be adaptive, as they may optimize nutrient capture of plants, this has rarely been tested. We investigated whether nutrient-foraging responses are adaptive, and whether they pre-adapt alien species to become natural-area invaders. We grew 12 pairs of congeneric species (i.e., 24 species) native to Europe in heterogeneous and homogeneous nutrient environments, and compared their foraging responses and performance. One species in each pair is a USA natural-area invader, and the other one is not. Within species, individuals with strong foraging responses, measured as plasticity in root diameter and specific root length, had a higher biomass. Among species, the ones with strong foraging responses, measured as plasticity in root length and root biomass, had a higher biomass. Our results therefore suggest that root foraging is an adaptive trait. Invasive species showed significantly stronger root-foraging responses than non-invasive species when measured as root diameter. Biomass accumulation was decreased in the heterogeneous vs. the homogeneous environment. In aboveground, but not belowground and total biomass, this decrease was smaller in invasive than in non-invasive species. Our results show that strong plastic root-foraging responses are adaptive, and suggest that it might aid in pre-adapting species to becoming natural-area invaders.

Citation

Keser, L., Visser, E., Dawson, W., Song, Y., Yu, F., Fischer, M., …van Kleunen, M. (2015). Herbaceous plant species invading natural areas tend to have stronger adaptive root foraging than other naturalized species. Frontiers in Plant Science, 6, Article 273. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00273

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 5, 2015
Online Publication Date Apr 27, 2015
Publication Date Apr 27, 2015
Deposit Date Jan 4, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Frontiers in Plant Science
Publisher Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 6
Article Number 273
DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00273

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2015 Keser, Visser, Dawson, Song, Yu, Fischer, Dong and van Kleunen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.




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