Abstract
A key scientific challenge relating to the threat of invasive plants on agriculture at the region level is to understand their adaptation and evolution in functional traits. Leaf functional traits, related to growth and resource utilization, might lead to adaptation of invasive plants to the geographical barriers (region or elevation). In the field experiment, we discussed the effects of region and elevation on leaf functional traits on invasive plant Erigeron annuus in farmland habitats in China. We compared leaf size, coefficient of variation (CV) of leaf traits, and fluctuating asymmetry (FA) of E. annuus from three regions (east vs. center vs. west) and two leaf types (vegetative vs. reproductive leaf), and from nine elevations (980–2100 m) in the west region of China. Our results indicated region and leaf type influenced leaf functional traits, and leaf size was significantly higher and CV of leaf traits and FA in reproductive leaves were significantly lower in the east region than in the west and center regions. Elevation and leaf type affected leaf functional traits, and leaf size was significantly higher and CV of leaf traits in reproductive leaves were significantly lower in moderate elevation. E. annuus has higher leaf size and developmental stability (lower CV and FA) in the eastern region due to the longer adaptation period. Therefore, leaf functional traits play an important role in the adaptation of different longitudes and elevations. It can also facilitate the understanding of the invasiveness and adaptation of leaf traits of invasive plants in the agricultural ecosystem during their spread process in China.
Highlights
Distribution of many plants are determined by environment gradient but may be influenced by physical dispersal barrier so as to prevent them from that spatial movement tending to broaden the region [1,2,3]
The results indicated that the adaptive of E. annuus in eastern site was stronger than the central and western site, in another words, it meant that the former invasive plants grow better than the latter
We found that coefficient of variation (CV) and fluctuating asymmetry (FA) are significantly greater in leaves of E. annuus that occur in elevation of 1300 m compared with others
Summary
Distribution of many plants are determined by environment gradient but may be influenced by physical dispersal barrier so as to prevent them from that spatial movement tending to broaden the region [1,2,3]. Exotic plants spread frequently under the influence of global climate change [4]. When plant species are introduced to a new suitable region, there will be a rapid increase in distribution and abundance because of a decrease in regulation by herbivores and other natural enemies [5,6]. Some other plants become invasive species via their own competition mechanism, such as allelopathy and functional traits [7,8,9]. The strong adaptability of exotic invasive species over native plants is often explained by their functional traits, such as faster
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