The Effect of Submergence and Eutrophication on the Trait’s Performance of Wedelia Trilobata over Its Congener Native Wedelia Chinensis

Ahmad Azeem,Qaiser Javed,Jianfan Sun,Khawar Jabran,Daolin Du

doi:10.3390/w12040934

Ahmad Azeem, Qaiser Javed + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/w12040934

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Journal: Water	Publication Date: Mar 26, 2020
Citations: 11	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Jiangsu University, Niğde Ömer Halisdemir Üniversitesi

Abstract

Climate change and artificial disturbance may lead to increased submergence and eutrophication near a riparian zone and the shift of terrestrial plants into a riparian zone. In this study, the responses of terrestrial invasive Wedelia trilobata (WT) and congener native Wedelia chinensis (WC) plants were examined under submergence and eutrophication. A greenhouse experiment was conducted in which ramets of WT and WC were investigated under two levels of submergence (S1 and S2) and three levels of nutrients (N1, N2 and N3) along with two cultures (mono and mixed). Submergence (S) did not affect the morphological traits of both the species but nutrients (N), culture (C) and their interaction, along with submergence, had a significant effect on the morphological traits of both the species. The growth of WC under high submergence and high nutrients was decreased compared with low nutrients (N1, N2) but WT maintained its growth in monoculture. In mixed culture, low submergence (S1) and low nutrients (N1, N2) made WC more dominant but high submergence (S2) and high nutrients (N3) made WT more successful than WC due to its high phenotypic plasticity and negative effect of competition intensity. It was concluded that both species survive and grow well under submergence and eutrophication, but high submergence and eutrophication provide better conditions for WT to grow well.

Highlights

Globalization causes many invasive plant species to develop their wild population, where they were not introduced before [1,2]
Was significantly higher than Wedelia chinensis (WC) in all submergence and nutrient treatments (Figure 2a), but under low submergence and low nutrients (S1.N1 and S1.N2), total biomass of WC was higher than Wedelia trilobata (WT), while under high submergence and all nutrients levels (S2.N1, S2.N2 and S2.N3), total biomass of WT
While it can be realized that little eutrophication and a low submergence level would not promote the growth of WT, because invasive plant species, especially clonal plants, like to grow in nutrient-rich habitats [45], that is why high amounts of eutrophication and submergence would increase the growth of WT under mono and mixed culture (Figure 2)

Summary

Introduction

Globalization causes many invasive plant species to develop their wild population, where they were not introduced before [1,2]. Many of these species have successfully spread in the introduced ranges and they occupy large areas because of decreased environment suitability for native plant species [3,4] and increased resource availability due to global change that helps invasive plant species [5,6]. Better traits’ performance under different environmental conditions makes invasive plant species successful and allows them to spread in the introduced habitat [9,10,11,12]. The success of invasive plant species in a new region was faster than native plant species because of higher phenotypic plasticity, and invasive plant species could outperform

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