Abstract
The impact of exotic species on native organisms is widely acknowledged, but poorly understood. Very few studies have empirically investigated how invading plants may alter delicate ecological interactions among resident species in the invaded range. We present novel evidence that antifungal phytochemistry of the invasive plant, Alliaria petiolata, a European invader of North American forests, suppresses native plant growth by disrupting mutualistic associations between native canopy tree seedlings and belowground arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Our results elucidate an indirect mechanism by which invasive plants can impact native flora, and may help explain how this plant successfully invades relatively undisturbed forest habitat.
Highlights
Widespread anthropogenic dispersal of exotic organisms has raised growing concern over their devastating ecological impacts, and has prompted decades of research on the ecology of invasive species [1,2,3]
Successful invasion in many cases appears to involve the fact that invasive species are not at equilibrium, and are either freed of long-standing biotic interactions with their enemies in the home range, and/ or disrupt interactions among the suite of native organisms they encounter in a new range [9]
We found that dominant native hardwood tree species of northeastern temperate forests, Acer saccharum, Ac. rubrum, and Faxinus americana, showed significantly less arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonization of roots (Figure 1A) and slower growth (Figure 1B) when grown in soil that had been invaded by garlic mustard
Summary
The impact of exotic species on native organisms is widely acknowledged, but poorly understood. Very few studies have empirically investigated how invading plants may alter delicate ecological interactions among resident species in the invaded range. We present novel evidence that antifungal phytochemistry of the invasive plant, Alliaria petiolata, a European invader of North American forests, suppresses native plant growth by disrupting mutualistic associations between native canopy tree seedlings and belowground arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Our results elucidate an indirect mechanism by which invasive plants can impact native flora, and may help explain how this plant successfully invades relatively undisturbed forest habitat
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