Abstract
Trait‐based approaches are widely used in community ecology and invasion biology to unravel underlying mechanisms of vegetation dynamics. Although fundamental trade‐offs between specific traits and invasibility are well described among terrestrial plants, little is known about their role and function in aquatic plant species. In this study, we examine the functional differences of aquatic alien and native plants stating that alien and native species differ in selected leaf traits. Our investigation is based on 60 taxa (21 alien and 39 native) collected from 22 freshwater units of Hungarian and Italian lowlands and highlands. Linear mixed models were used to investigate the effects of nativeness on four fundamental traits (leaf area, leaf dry matter content, specific leaf area, and leaf nitrogen content), while the influence of growth‐form, altitude, and site were employed simultaneously. We found significantly higher values of leaf areas and significantly lower values of specific leaf areas for alien species if growth‐form was included in the model as an additional predictor.We showed that the trait‐based approach of autochthony can apply to aquatic environments similar to terrestrial ones, and leaf traits have relevance in explaining aquatic plant ecology whether traits are combined with growth‐forms as a fixed factor. Our results confirm the importance of traits related to competitive ability in the process of aquatic plant invasions. Alien aquatic plants can be characterized as species producing soft leaves faster. We argue that the functional traits of alien aquatic plants are strongly growth‐form dependent. Using the trait‐based approach, we found reliable characteristics of aquatic plants related to species invasions, which might be used, for example, in conservation management.
Highlights
An increasing number of studies confirmed that alien species serve as dominant forces in ecosystem crises due to their roles as ecosystem engineers by replacing native species and driving local extinctions (Mooney & Cleland, 2001)
Due to the various economics in contrasting hydrophyte growth-forms, we suggest that the general models of plant traits comparing alien and native species should be applied to aquatic species
We found convergence in the case of leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and leaf nitrogen content (LNC) which suggest a filtering mechanism for these traits, whereas in the case of LA and specific leaf area (SLA), we found divergence; limiting similarity was the dominant mechanism for these leaf traits
Summary
An increasing number of studies confirmed that alien species serve as dominant forces in ecosystem crises due to their roles as ecosystem engineers by replacing native species and driving local extinctions (Mooney & Cleland, 2001). |2 are most likely to be invaded (Pyšek & Richardson, 2006) All of these questions are related to the invasion paradox (Fridley et al, 2007), providing an explanation for how alien species can be more successful than natives in a more or less natural environment. Native species are generally described as being indigenous to an area since the last Ice Age, whereas aliens have been established due to human activities since (Pyšek, 1995). Invasive species are those which have been able to overcome a series of geographical, environmental, and dispersal barriers and reproduce successfully in a new environment (Richardson et al, 2000). Papers on alien species success mostly focused on terrestrial species; aquatic ecosystems are seriously invaded by alien species (Lukács, Mesterházy, Vidéki, & Király, 2016) and there are papers that aim to study the success and biological attributes of alien aquatic plants (Kliber & Eckert, 2005; Riis et al, 2010)
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