Invasive dominance and resident diversity: unpacking the impact of plant invasion on biodiversity and ecosystem function

Abstract

AbstractPlant invasions have consistently been shown to cause significant reductions in the diversity of recipient plant communities; an effect that can cascade through ecosystems to impact the stocks and flows of nutrients and energy as well as the diversity of higher trophic levels. However, the manner in which invasive plants alter ecosystem functioning and trophic interactions is highly variable can occur through the direct effects of the invader's abundance and its indirect effects via changes in community diversity. Understanding the nature of these interactions between plant invasion, community diversity and ecosystem functioning can provide insight for ecosystem managers. We evaluated whether plant invasion alters the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF) by comparing BEF models that either include or subtract the diversity and function values associated with the invasive vine,Vincetoxicum rossicum.To do this, we (1) characterizeV. rossicumwithin the functional trait space of the regional species pool, (2) assess how different components of plant biodiversity vary along aV. rossicuminvasion gradient, and (3) examine howV. rossicuminvasion affects BEF relationships and trophic interactions, both at the plot‐scale and incrementally along a site‐level invasion gradient. In general, we found thatV. rossicuminvasion was associated with significant declines in plant community diversity across a suite of biodiversity measures; a consequence ofV. rossicum's functional trait structure (height and specific leaf area). We also found thatV. rossicuminvasion resulted in significantly greater productivity (i.e., dominance effects in the inclusion model), but also that the diversity of the remaining resident community was positively associated with productivity (i.e., niche complementarity in the subtraction model). Further, we observed that while the relationship between flower cover and pollinator diversity was positive for both the inclusion and subtraction models, this relationship was stronger in the absence ofV. rossicum. Our findings suggest that while plant invasion can result in enhanced productivityviadominance effects, this comes at the cost of significant declines in diversity. However, it is also the case that remaining resident diversity can exhibit positive effects on multiple functions and support for higher trophic levels.