Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1098/rspb.2020.1070
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Phylogenetic and functional distinctiveness explain alien plant population responses to competition
Author Levin, S.C.; Crandall, R.M.; Pokoski, T.; Stein, C.; Knight, T.M.
Source Titel Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences
Year 2020
Department BZF; iDiv
Volume 287
Issue 1930
Page From art. 20201070
Language englisch
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2573061
Supplements https://royalsocietypublishing.org/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1098%2Frspb.2020.1070&file=rspb20201070supp1.pdf
Keywords competition; phylogeny; demography; functional traits; invasions
Abstract Several invasion hypotheses predict a positive association between phylogenetic and functional distinctiveness of aliens and their performance, leading to the idea that distinct aliens compete less with their resident communities. However, synthetic pattern relationships between distinctiveness and alien performance and direct tests of competition as the driving mechanism have not been forthcoming. This is likely because different patterns are observed at different spatial grains, because functional trait and phylogenetic information are often incomplete, and because of the need for competition experiments that measure demographic responses across a variety of alien species that vary in their distinctiveness. We conduct a competitor removal experiment and parameterize matrix population and integral projection models for 14 alien plant species. More novel aliens compete less strongly with co-occurring species in their community, but these results dissipate at a larger spatial grain of investigation. Further, we find that functional traits used in conjunction with phylogeny improve our ability to explain competitive responses. Our investigation shows that competition is an important mechanism underlying the differential success of alien species.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=23436
Levin, S.C., Crandall, R.M., Pokoski, T., Stein, C., Knight, T.M. (2020):
Phylogenetic and functional distinctiveness explain alien plant population responses to competition
Proc. R. Soc. B-Biol. Sci. 287 (1930), art. 20201070 10.1098/rspb.2020.1070