Rapid increase in growth and productivity can aid invasions by a non-native tree

Abstract

Biological invasions are currently an important cause of environmental degradation, but they also offer important insights on how species respond to changes in the environment. Invasive species affect native ecosystems, but they are also affected by them. Our new study evaluated how invasive populations of a non-native pine responded to climate and other environmental factors. Our results show that many plants at the forefront of six different invasions are growing faster and being more productive than the plants originally planted 40 years ago. Taken together, the capacity for adaptation to different conditions and evolution of increased growth rates make Pinus taeda an invasive species that requires management and control before its spread reaches large areas.

Loss of functional diversity and network modularity in introduced plant-fungal symbioses

“…Indeed, the genetic traits of ectomycorrhizal fungi could be considered as the ‘second-genome’ of plants ( Zenni et al 2016 a ), in the same sense as the term has been applied to endosymbionts of animals ( Shah et al 2016 ). As such, a complete understanding of evolutionary dynamics in tree invasions requires understanding of not just genomic traits ( Zenni et al 2016 b ) and phenotypic plasticity ( Zimmermann et al 2016 ), but also traits of associated symbionts.…”

Introduction to the special issue: Tree invasions: towards a better understanding of their complex evolutionary dynamics

“…For the same reason, the category ‘genotype-by-environment interactions’ defined by Zenni et al (2017) is, here, considered under ‘rapid evolution’. Numbers in square brackets on the right side of the figure denote the papers in the special issue that deal with the corresponding evolutionary mechanisms: [1] Besnard and Cuneo (2016) ; [2] Burgess et al (2016) ; [3] Crous et al (2017) ; [4] Dickie et al (2016) ; [5] Gaskin (2017) ; [6] Hirsch et al (2016) ; [7] Klock et al (2016) ; [8] Le Roux et al (2016) ; [9] Miller et al (2017) ; [10] Siemann et al (2017) ; [11] Zenni et al (2016) ; [12] Zimmermann et al (2016) . …”

“…A study by Zenni et al (2016) demonstrated the role of rapid evolution in the invasion success of the non-native loblolly pine, Pinus taeda , in Brazil, where the species has escaped from plantations. The authors found evidence of rapid evolution in growth rates and a lack of trade-offs between growth and defence traits.…”

“…Evolutionary studies on tree invasions are also interesting to ecologists and evolutionary biologists because they are unique natural experiments that afford outstanding opportunities for understanding evolution during invasions as well as during general colonization processes (e.g. see Richardson et al 2004 ; Gundale et al 2014 ; Bock et al 2015 ; Zenni et al 2016 ). Invasive trees have several key characteristics that distinguish them from other invasive plants and which can have implications for their evolutionary dynamics: Their unique architecture, long life cycles and high reproductive output can have a strong influence on the mode and rate of evolutionary processes ( Petit and Hampe 2006 ).…”

What happens in Europe stays in Europe: apparent evolution by an invader does not help at home

“…This suggests that greater size and competitive ability may be selected for and thus evolve in the new ranges of many exotic plant species (Blossey and Nötzold 1995, Blair and Wolfe 2004, Joshi and Vrieling 2005). This rapid evolution has been proposed to contribute to the invasiveness of some exotic species (Sakai et al 2001, Stockwell et al 2003, Lambrinos 2004, Barrett et al 2008, Keller and Taylor 2008, Dudeque Zenni et al 2016); however, the consequences of such evolutionary responses in both the native and nonnative ranges of invasive species are poorly understood.…”