Abstract
Growth behavior of different species under different habitats can be studied by comparing the production of biomass, plasticity index and relative competitive interaction. However, these functional traits of invasive species received rare consideration for determining the invasion success of invasive species at wetlands. Here, we examined the effect of water depth at 5 cm and 15 cm (static and fluctuated) with different nutrient concentrations (full-strength (n1), 1/4-strength (n2) and 1/8-strength (n3) Hoagland solution) on functional traits of invasive Wedelia trilobata and its congener native Wedelia chinensis under mono and mixed culture. Water depth of 5 cm with any of the nutrient treatments (n1, n2 and n3) significantly restrained the photosynthesis, leaf nitrogen and photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE) of both W. trilobata and W. chinensis. While, increase in the water depth to 15 cm with low nutrient treatment (n3) reduced more of biomass of W. chinensis under mixed culture. However, relative competition interaction (RCI) was recorded positive for W. trilobata and seemingly W. trilobata benefited more from RCI under high-fluctuated water depth at 15 cm in mixed culture. Therefore, higher PNUE, more competitive ability and higher plasticity may contribute to the invasiveness of W. trilobata in wetlands.
Highlights
Growth behavior of different species under different habitats can be studied by comparing the production of biomass, plasticity index and relative competitive interaction
In some proceeding studies related to wetland plants, it has been noted that some plants can stand and grow well at water depth fluctuation up to 30 cm and produce high biomass[28,39]
The above description about the behavior of invasive W. trilobata and native species W. chinensis is supported as may be that both species have an ability to tolerate such small water depth fluctuations and showed compensatory growth
Summary
Growth behavior of different species under different habitats can be studied by comparing the production of biomass, plasticity index and relative competitive interaction. These functional traits of invasive species received rare consideration for determining the invasion success of invasive species at wetlands. The competitive ability of invasive and native species varies with water availability and it may be altered by environmental variations[11,12] These functional traits are involved directly or indirectly in the mechanism of successful plant invasion of invasive species over their co-occurring native species that experience the similar environmental selective pressures[13]. With our scope, no reports have dealt with how an invasive species and its native competitors respond to water fluctuations at different depth along with nutrient concentration levels in wetlands
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