Evolution of invasiveness through increased resource use in a vacant niche

Nature Plants
Katrina M DlugoschLoren H Rieseberg

Abstract

Non-native plants are now a pervasive feature of ecosystems across the globe(1). One hypothesis for this pattern is that introduced species occupy open niches in recipient communities(2,3). If true, then non-native plants should often benefit from low competition for limiting resources that define niches. Many plants have evolved larger size after introduction, consistent with increased access to limiting resources(4-9). It has been difficult to test whether larger size reflects adaptation to exploit open resources, however, because vacant niches are generally challenging to identify in plants. Here we take advantage of a situation in which a highly invasive non-native plant, Centaurea solstitialis L. (yellow starthistle, hereafter 'YST'), occupies a well-described environmental niche, wherein water is a known limiting resource(10,11). We use a glasshouse common environment and climatic niche modeling to reveal that invading YST has evolved a higher-fitness life history at the expense of increased dependence on water. Critically, historical declines in resident competitors have made water more available for introduced plants(11,12), demonstrating how native biodiversity declines can open niches and create opportunities for intr...Continue Reading

References

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Dec 11, 2013·The New Phytologist·Kathryn G TurnerLoren H Rieseberg

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Citations

Aug 5, 2015·Evolutionary Applications·Britt Koskella
Oct 28, 2018·The New Phytologist·Lotte A van BoheemenKathryn A Hodgins
Nov 30, 2018·Molecular Ecology·Brittany S BarkerKatrina M Dlugosch
Dec 7, 2016·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Robert I ColauttiSonia E Sultan
May 8, 2018·Nature Ecology & Evolution·Dan G BockLoren H Rieseberg
Jun 8, 2018·Evolutionary Applications·Erik E SotkaStacy A Krueger-Hadfield
Aug 6, 2019·Ecology and Evolution·Lotte A van BoheemenKathryn A Hodgins
Aug 29, 2018·Ecology and Evolution·Daniel Montesinos, Ragan M Callaway
May 14, 2018·Current Opinion in Plant Biology·Patricia Lu-IrvingKatrina M Dlugosch

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