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Abstract
Invasive alien plants often modify the structure of native plant communities, but their potential impact on soil communities is far less studied. In this study, we looked at the impact of invasive Asian knotweed (Reynoutria spp.) on two major soil mesofauna (Collembola) and microfauna (Nematodes) communities. We expected ingress of knotweed to differentially affect faunal groups depending on their trophic position, with the lower trophic levels being more impacted than the higher trophic groups according to the closer relationship to plants for basal trophic groups. Furthermore, we expected the knotweed impact to depend on habitat type (forest vs. meadow) with more pronounced changes in abundances of soil invertebrate in invaded meadows. Plant and soil invertebrates were sampled in six sites (three forest and three meadows) in northern France in both control and invaded plots. Our results showed that the presence of knotweed strongly reduced native plant species’ diversity and abundance. Soil fauna also responded to the invasion by Asian knotweed with different responses, as hypothesized, according to trophic position or life-forms. Furthermore, abundances of several collembolan life-forms were influenced by the interaction between the factors “Habitat” and “Knotweed”. This may explain the difficulty to easily generalize and predict the consequences of plant invasion on belowground diversity, although this is of crucial importance for alleviating negative consequences and costs of biological invasion.
Highlights
Biological invasions are a main concern globally as they have drastic economic and ecological impacts through replacement of native species, change in habitat structure or alteration of ecosystem functioning [1,2]
Native plant communities suffer from establishment and development of invasive alien plant species
“Knotweed”, litter thickness and C:N to cont and native plant cover considerably reduced in invaded plots compared ratio, with significantly higher values in invaded plots than in control plots (Table plots, by 2.5 times and 32 times, respectively (Table 1, Figure 1)
Summary
Biological invasions are a main concern globally as they have drastic economic and ecological impacts through replacement of native species, change in habitat structure or alteration of ecosystem functioning [1,2]. Biological invasions are expected to increase in the future, being exacerbated by globalization and interactions with a number of other components including urbanization, over-exploitation, climate change and agricultural intensification. Despite progress in generalizing the impacts of invasive alien species, species that have successfully been introduced, established and spread beyond their native range, there remain considerable uncertainties regarding the underlying mechanisms of such impacts [4]. Native plant communities suffer from establishment and development of invasive alien plant species. Success of invasive species may result from both direct effects (e.g., allelopathy or competition with natives; [5]) or indirectly through changes in the environment [2]
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