Do seed and microsite limitation interact with seed size in determining invasion patterns in flooding Pampa grasslands?

Abstract

Additive influences of the invasion ability of species (invasiveness) and the characteristics of the habitat which make it invasible (invasibility) cannot fully explain grassland invasion patterns. We tested the hypothesis that different species assemblages of grassland communities may partly result from interactive influences between the relative invasiveness of available species and community invasibility. During 10 months, we evaluated seed and microsite limitation of seedling emergence, survival, and recruitment of plants belonging to species with different seed size (large-seeded species vs. small-seeded species), with in a two-phase community mosaic typical of semi-natural grasslands in the southern flooding Pampa of Argentina. Seeds of large versus small-seeded species were sown either in species-poor patches dominated by a tall tussock grass (“pajonal”) or in species-rich patches dominated by short grasses (“matrix”), subjected to different levels of canopy disturbance (cut vs. uncut). Seed addition promoted seedling emergence for 7 out of the 10 species sown, and this effect was higher for large than for small-seeded species. After seed limitations were removed, interactive effects among seed size, community state and canopy disturbance reflected a strong positive influence of seed size on plant recruitment only in cut pajonal patches. Therefore, according to the stage of invasion process, relative species success may depend on non-interactive (seed-size effect on seed limitation to seedling emergence) or interactive influences among species invasibility and community invasiveness (from seedling emergence to plant recruitment). As a general conclusion, different assemblages of species are expected to successfully colonize spatially close grassland patches, according to both the available invasible species (seed size) and the community state and stage (species composition and canopy disturbance).