Abstract
While invasive plant species primarily occur in disturbed, high-resource environments, many species have invaded ecosystems characterized by low nutrient, water, and light availability. Species adapted to low-resource systems often display traits associated with resource conservation, such as slow growth, high tissue longevity, and resource-use efficiency. This contrasts with our general understanding of invasive species physiology derived primarily from studies in high-resource environments. These studies suggest that invasive species succeed through high resource acquisition. This review examines physiological and morphological traits of native and invasive species in low-resource environments. Existing data support the idea that species invading low-resource environments possess traits associated with resource acquisition, resource conservation or both. Disturbance and climate change are affecting resource availability in many ecosystems, and understanding physiological differences between native and invasive species may suggest ways to restore invaded ecosystems.
Highlights
Low-resource environments are defined as those where plant productivity is severely limited by light, water, or soil nutrient availability, such as forest understories, deserts, and ancient landscapes
Native species appear to have a competitive advantage over invasive species in low-resource systems (Alpert et al, 2000; Daehler, 2003), and communities become more susceptible to invasion when resource availability is increased (Davis et al, 2000)
An analysis of the California flora concluded that fewer invasive species than native species form mycorrhizal associations, while the pattern was reversed in Great Britain
Summary
Low-resource environments are defined as those where plant productivity is severely limited by light, water, or soil nutrient availability, such as forest understories, deserts, and ancient landscapes. Schoenfelder et al (2010) found that an invasive forb (Hypochaeris radicata) growing on nutrient-poor volcanic soils did not have higher PNUE relative to a confamilial native species. Many native plants in P-limited soils have cluster roots and/or high phosphatase production in roots (Richardson et al, 2009; Olde Venterink, 2011) It is unclear whether invasive species in P-limited systems share these strategies, several Lupinus species have cluster roots and invade low-P soils in Australia (Lambers et al, 2013). An analysis of the California flora concluded that fewer invasive species than native species form mycorrhizal associations, while the pattern was reversed in Great Britain
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