Abstract
The perennial stoloniferous herbaceous vine Mikania micrantha H.B.K. is among the most noxious exotic invaders in China and the world. Disturbance can fragment stolons of M. micrantha and disperse these fragments over long distances or bury them in soils at different depths. To test their regeneration capacity, single-node stolon fragments with stolon internode lengths of 0, 3, 6 and 12 cm were buried in soil at 0, 2, 5 and 8 cm depths, respectively. The fragments were growing for nine weeks, and their emergence status, growth and morphological traits were measured. The results indicated that increasing burial depth significantly decreased survival rate and increased the emergence time of the M. micrantha plants. At an 8-cm burial depth, very few fragments (2.19%) emerged and survived. Burial did not affect the total biomass and root to shoot ratio of the surviving M. micrantha plants that emerged from the 0- and 2-cm burial depths. Increasing internode length significantly increased survival rate and growth measures, but there was no interaction effect with burial depth for any traits measured. These results suggest that M. micrantha can regenerate from buried stolon fragments, and thus, disturbance may contribute to the spread of this exotic invader. Any human activities producing stolon fragments or facilitating dispersal should be avoided.
Highlights
Understanding the mechanisms explaining the establishment and spread of exotic species is a leading topic in invasion biology and applied ecology
We address the following two hypotheses: (1) stolon fragments of M. micrantha have a high regeneration capacity, and (2) the regeneration capacity and subsequent growth of stolon fragments is related to both fragment size and burial depth
Differences in emergence time among internode length treatments were primarily driven by the long emergence time of fragments with a 0-cm internode length (Figure 1B)
Summary
Understanding the mechanisms explaining the establishment and spread of exotic species is a leading topic in invasion biology and applied ecology. Successful invasion depends both on the attributes of the invader and the characteristics of the recipient community [1]. The establishment and spread of plant invaders are generally facilitated by community disturbance [2]. Disturbance often leads to increased resource supply into a community or decreased resource uptake by resident plants, which provides niche opportunities for the establishment and proliferation of exotic plants [4]. The overall effect of disturbance on invasion depends on species attributes. Life-history traits, such as regrowth capacity and vegetative propagation, may significantly determine the potential for a clonal plant invader to benefit from disturbances [5,6]
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