Solidago gigantea plants from nonnative ranges compensate more in response to damage than plants from the native range

Abstract

Resistance and tolerance are two ways that plants cope with herbivory. Tolerance, the ability of a plant to regrow or reproduce after being consumed, has been studied less than resistance, but this trait varies widely among species and has considerable potential to affect the ecology of plant species. One particular aspect of tolerance, compensatory responses, can evolve rapidly in plant species; providing insight into interactions between consumers and plants. However, compensation by invasive species has rarely been explored. We compared compensatory responses to the effects of simulated herbivory expressed by plants from seven Solidago gigantea populations from the native North American range to that expressed by plants from nine populations from the nonnative European range. Populations were also collected along elevational gradients to compare ecotypic variation within and between ranges. Solidago plants from the nonnative range of Europe were more tolerant to herbivory than plants from the native range of North America. Furthermore, plants from European populations increased in total biomass and growth rate with elevation, but decreased in compensatory response. There were no relationships between elevation and growth or compensation for North American populations. Our results suggest that Solidago gigantea may have evolved to better compensate for herbivory damage in Europe, perhaps in response to a shift to greater proportion of attack from generalists. Our results also suggest a possible trade-off between rapid growth and compensation to damage in European populations but not in North American populations.

Lineage and latitudinal variation in Phragmites australis tolerance to herbivory: implications for invasion success

“…Finally, defensive strategies in P. australis are further complicated geographically because of strong latitudinal variation in tolerance (this study) and resistance (Bhattarai et al ). Scarcely any other native‐invasive plant systems exist where this level of large‐scale variation in tolerance and resistance is available (but see Liao et al ). Below, we focus on the causes and consequences of variation in P. australis tolerance and conclude with a broader examination of the ramifications of geographic variation in defenses for invasion success.…”

“…Such shifts in defense allocation would likely facilitate invasion success. Although populations sourced from the invaded range tend to be more tolerant than populations sourced from the native range (Abhilasha and Joshi , Wang et al , Liao et al , Zhang et al ; but see Bossdorf et al , de Jong and Lin ), understanding how tolerance to herbivory mediates invasion success requires a comparison between co‐occurring native and invasive species that share herbivore communities. Many fewer studies have compared tolerance between co‐occurring congeneric or confamilial pairs of native and invasive species, with findings of greater tolerance in invasive species (Ashton and Lerdau , Liu et al ), native species (Zas et al ), or no differences between them (Engelkes et al , Lurie et al ).…”

“…Lastly, we found that growth rate was negatively related to tolerance. Growth and tolerance are expected to covary positively (Coley et al , Gianoli and Salgado‐Luarte ), but results are currently mixed (Turley et al , Liao et al , de Jong and Lin ). For example, Turley et al () found no evolutionary change in Rumex acetosa tolerance to herbivory after 26 years without rabbit herbivory, although growth rate decreased by 30%.…”

Salt‐tolerant native plants have greater responses to other environments when compared to salt‐tolerant invasive plants

“…Invasive plants have been proven to be capable of rapid evolution in response to stresses, which profoundly contribute to their strong expansion potential (Kollmann & Bañuelos, 2004;Liao, Gurgel, Pal, Hooper, & Callaway, 2016;Poll, Naylor, Alexander, Edwards, & Dietz, 2009). However, how the rapid evolution of tolerance to one stressor may further affect the expansion potential of invasive plants through affecting the responses to other stressful environments has not received much attention.…”

Intense mowing management suppresses invader, but shifts competitive resistance by a native to facilitation

“…This could promote compensatory responses from Solidago (Ramula et al 2019). Compensatory responses to damage might enable Solidago to better withstand frequent disturbance as Liao et al (2016) observed, but they did not test the effect of soil biota on this response. Other studies indicate that soil biota may increase compensatory responses in general (He et al 2014; Allsup & Paige 2016).…”