Leaf construction cost, nutrient concentration, and net CO 2 assimilation of native and invasive species in Hawaii

Baruch, Zdravko; Goldstein, Guillermo

doi:10.1007/s004420050920

Cited by 332 publications

(306 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(46 reference statements)

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“…For some elements, especially N, we found that the invasive species actually had lower concentrations than the resident vegetation. This is apparently at odds with earlier studies showing higher concentrations of nutrients in invasive species (Baruch and Goldstein 1999;Ehrenfeld et al 2001;Blank and Young 2002). This apparent discrepancy may be explained by the fact that our data refer to whole shoots (thus including nutrient-poor stems), while only foliar concentrations were analysed in most published studies.…”

Section: Alien Invasive Species Increase Biomass and Nutrient Stocks contrasting

confidence: 78%

Impacts of alien invasive plants on soil nutrients are correlated with initial site conditions in NW Europe

et al. 2008

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Alien invasive plants are capable of modifying ecosystem function. However, it is difficult to make generalisations because impacts often appear to be species-and site-specific. In this study, we examined the impacts of seven highly invasive plant species in NW Europe (Fallopia japonica, Heracleum mantegazzianum, Impatiens glandulifera, Prunus serotina, Rosa rugosa, Senecio inaequidens, Solidago gigantea) on nutrient pools in the topsoil and the standing biomass. We tested if the impacts follow predictable patterns, across species and sites or, alternatively, if they are entirely idiosyncratic. To that end, we compared invaded and adjacent uninvaded plots in a total of 36 sites with widely divergent soil chemistry and vegetation composition. For all species, invaded plots had increased aboveground biomass and nutrient stocks in standing biomass compared to uninvaded vegetation. This suggests that enhanced nutrient uptake may be a key trait of highly invasive plant species. The magnitude and direction of the impact on topsoil chemical properties were strongly site-specific. A striking inding is that the direction of change in soil properties followed a predictable pattern. Thus, strong positive impacts (higher topsoil nutrient concentrations in invaded plots compared to uninvaded ones) were most often found in sites with initially low nutrient concentrations in the topsoil, while negative impacts were generally found under the opposite conditions. This pattern was significant for potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese and nitrogen. The particular site-specific pattern in the impacts that we observed provides the first evidence that alien invasive species may contribute to a homogenisation of soil conditions in invaded landscapes.

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Section: Alien Invasive Species Increase Biomass and Nutrient Stocks contrasting

confidence: 78%

Impacts of alien invasive plants on soil nutrients are correlated with initial site conditions in NW Europe

et al. 2008

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“…Higher terpene contents are compatible with a fast return strategy of "leaf economics spectrum" based on a higher photosynthetic capacity, higher nutrient content, lower LMA, and faster return on investment in foliage (Wright et al, 2004). These traits help to explain the success of invasive plant species (Pattison et al, 1998;Baruch and Goldstein, 1999;Funk and Vitousek, 2007) since they can contribute to faster growth rates for invaders and confer a competitive advantage over native species (Reich et al, 1997;Blumenthal and Hufbauer, 2007). have observed these faster returns from their investments in nutrients and dry mass in leaves, and these higher contents of most nutrients in these alien species in Oahu (Hawaii).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Higher Allocation to Low Cost Chemical Defenses in Invasive Species of Hawaii

et al. 2010

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The capacity to produce carbon-based secondary compounds (CBSC), such as phenolics (including tannins) and terpenes as defensive compounds against herbivores or against neighboring competing plants can be involved in the competition between alien and native plant species. Since the Hawaiian Islands are especially vulnerable to invasions by alien species, we compared total phenolic (TP), total tannin (Tta), and total terpene (TT) leaf contents of alien and native plants on Oahu Island (Hawaii). We analyzed 35 native and 38 alien woody plant species randomly chosen among representative current Hawaiian flora. None of these CBSC exhibited phylogenetic fingerprinting. Alien species had similar leaf TP and leaf Tta contents, and 135% higher leaf TT contents compared with native species. Alien plants had 80% higher leaf TT:N leaf content ratio than native plants. The results suggest that apart from greater growth rate and greater nutrient use, alien success in Oahu also may be linked to greater contents of low cost chemical defenses, such as terpenes, as expected in faster-growing species in resource rich regions. The higher TT contents in aliens may counterbalance their lower investment in leaf structural defenses and their higher leaf nutritional quality. The higher TT provides higher effectiveness in deterring the generalist herbivores of the introduced range, where specialist herbivores are absent. In addition, higher TT contents may favor aliens conferring higher protection against abiotic and biotic stressors. The higher terpene accumulation was independent of the alien species origin, which indicates that being alien either selects for higher terpene contents post-invasion, or that species with high terpene contents are pre-adapted to invasiveness. Although less likely, an originally lower terpene accumulation in Hawaiian than in continental plants that avoids the increased attraction of specialist enemies associated to terpenes may not be discarded.

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“…Other plant functional types are becoming more prevalent in Hawaii due to the sampling of the global flora, including a dramatic increase in the diversity of large tree species, some of which dominate the novel forests we studied (Fig. 1), combined with a broad increase in the diversity of leaf chemistries and physiological strategies (Baruch and Goldstein 1999). Collectively, the addition of introduced species to the depauperate Hawaiian flora is increasing the breadth of plant functional traits.…”

Section: Mechanisms For the Diversity Effectmentioning

confidence: 94%

Novel forests maintain ecosystem processes after the decline of native tree species

Mascaro

Hughes

Schnitzer

2012

Ecological Monographs

102

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Abstract. The positive relationship between species diversity (richness and evenness) and critical ecosystem functions, such as productivity, carbon storage, and nutrient cycling, is often used to predict the consequences of extinction. At regional scales, however, plant species richness is mostly increasing rather than decreasing because successful plant species introductions far outnumber extinctions. If these regional increases in richness lead to local increases in diversity, a reasonable prediction is that productivity, carbon storage, and nutrient cycling will increase following invasion, yet this prediction has rarely been tested empirically. We tested this prediction in novel forest communities dominated by introduced species (;90% basal area) in lowland Hawaiian rain forests by comparing their functionality to that of native forests. We conducted our comparison along a natural gradient of increasing nitrogen availability, allowing for a more detailed examination of the role of plant functional trait differences (specifically, N 2 fixation) in driving possible changes to ecosystem function. Hawaii is emblematic of regional patterns of species change; it has much higher regional plant richness than it did historically, due to .1000 plant species introductions and only ;71 known plant extinctions, resulting in an ;100% increase in richness. At local scales, we found that novel forests had significantly higher tree species richness and higher diversity of dominant tree species. We further found that aboveground biomass, productivity, nutrient turnover (as measured by soil-available and litter-cycled nitrogen and phosphorus), and belowground carbon storage either did not differ significantly or were significantly greater in novel relative to native forests. We found that the addition of introduced N 2 -fixing tree species on N-limited substrates had the strongest effect on ecosystem function, a pattern found by previous empirical tests. Our results support empirical predictions of the functional effects of diversity, but they also suggest basic ecosystem processes will continue even after dramatic losses of native species diversity if simple functional roles are provided by introduced species. Because large portions of the Earth's surface are undergoing similar transitions from native to novel ecosystems, our results are likely to be broadly applicable.

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Leaf construction cost, nutrient concentration, and net CO 2 assimilation of native and invasive species in Hawaii

Cited by 332 publications

References 37 publications

Impacts of alien invasive plants on soil nutrients are correlated with initial site conditions in NW Europe

Impacts of alien invasive plants on soil nutrients are correlated with initial site conditions in NW Europe

Higher Allocation to Low Cost Chemical Defenses in Invasive Species of Hawaii

Novel forests maintain ecosystem processes after the decline of native tree species

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