Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

High competitiveness of a resource demanding invasive acacia under low resource supply

  • Published:
Plant Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Mechanisms controlling the successful invasion of resource demanding species into low-resource environments are still poorly understood. Well-adapted native species are often considered superior competitors under stressful conditions. Here we investigate the competitive ability of the resource demanding alien Acacia longifolia, which invades nutrient-poor Mediterranean sand dunes such as in coastal areas of Portugal. We explore the hypothesis that drought may limit invasion in a factorial competition experiment of the alien invasive versus two native species of different functional groups (Halimium halimifolium, Pinus pinea), under well-watered and drought conditions. Changes in biomass, allocation pattern, and N-uptake-efficiency (via 15N-labeling) indicated a marked drought sensitivity of the invader. However, highly efficient drought adaptations of the native species did not provide a competitive advantage under water limiting conditions. The competitive strength of H. halimifolium towards the alien invader under well-watered conditions turned into a positive interaction between both species under drought. Further, low resource utilization by native species benefited A. longifolia by permitting continued high nitrogen uptake under drought. Hence, the N-fixing invader expresses low plasticity by continuous high resource utilization, even under low resource conditions. The introduction of novel traits into a community like N-fixation and high resource use may promote A. longifolia invasiveness through changes in the physical environment, i.e., the water and nutrient cycle of the invaded sand dune system, thereby potentially disrupting the co-evolved interactions within the native plant community.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bartelheimer M, Steinlein T, Beyschlag W (2008) 15N-Nitrate-labelling demonstrates a size symmetric competitive effect on belowground resource uptake. Plant Ecol 199:243–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baruch Z (1996) Ecophysiological aspects of the invasion by African grasses and their impact on biodiversity and function of neotropical savannas. Ecol Stud 121:79–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Beyschlag W, Hanisch S, Friedrich S, Jentsch A, Werner C (2009) 15N natural abundances during early and late succession in a middle-European dry acidic grassland. Plant Biol. doi:10.1111/j.1438-8677.2008.00173.x

  • Blumenthal D (2005) Interrelated causes of plant invasion. Science 310:243–244

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Booth MS, Caldwell MM, Stark JM (2003) Overlapping resource use in three Great Basin species: implications for community invasibility and vegetation dynamics. J Ecol 91:36–48

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooker RW, Maestre FT, Callaway RM, Lortie CL, Cavieres LA, Kunstler G, Liancourt P, Tielborger K, Travis JM, Anthelme F (2008) Facilitation in plant communities: the past, the present, and the future. J Ecol 96:18–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Call LJ, Nilsen ET (2005) Analysis of interactions between the invasive tree-of-heaven (Alianthus altissima) and the native black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). Plant Ecol 176:272–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Callaway RM, Aschehoug ET (2000) Invasive plants versus their new and old neighbors: a mechanism for exotic invasion. Science 290:521–522

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Callaway RM, Brooker RW, Choler P, Kikvidze Z, Lortie CJ, Michalet R, Paolini L, Pugnaire FI, Newingham B, Aschehoug ET, Armas C, Kikodze D, Cook BJ (2002) Positive interactions among alpine plants increase with stress. Nature 417:844–848

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chapin FS (1980) The mineral nutrition of wild plants. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 11:233–260

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chapin FSI, Zavaleta ES, Eviner VT, Naylor RL, Vitousek PM, Reynolds HL, Hooper DU, Lavorel S, Sala OE, Hobbie SE, Mack MC, Díaz S (2000) Consequences of changing biodiversity. Nature 405:234–242

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chesson P (2000) Mechanisms of maintenance of species diversity. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 31:343–366

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corbin JD, D’ Antonio CM (2004) Effects of exotic species on soil nitrogen cycling: implications for restoration. Weed Technol 18:1464–1467

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Correia O, Martins AC, Catarino F (1992) Comparative phenology and seasonal nitrogen variation in Mediterranean species of Portugal. Ecol Mediterr XVIII:7–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawley MJ (1990) The population dynamics of plants. Philos Trans Biol Sci 330:125–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronk QB, Fuller JL (1995) Plant invaders. Chapman and Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • D’ Antonio CM, Vitousek PM (1992) Biological invasions by exotic grasses, the grass/fire cycle, and global change. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 23:63–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Daehler CC (2003) Performance comparisons of co-occurring native and alien invasive plants: implications for conservation and restoration. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 34:183–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis MA, Grime JP, Thompson K (2000) Fluctuating resources in plant communities: a general theory of invasibility. J Ecol 88:528–534

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dietz H, Steinlein T (2004) Recent advances in understanding plant invasions. Prog Bot 65:539–573

    Google Scholar 

  • Dukes JS, Mooney HA (1999) Does global change increase the success of biological invaders? Trends Ecol Evol 14:135–139

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenfeld JG (2003) Effects of exotic plant invasions on soil nutrient cycling processes. Ecosystems 6:503–523

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Escudero A, Mediavilla S, Heilmeier H (2008) Leaf longevity and drought: avoidance of the costs and risks of early leaf abscission as inferred from the leaf carbon isotopic composition. Funct Plant Biol 35:705–713

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Evans RD, Rimer R, Sperry L (2001) Exotic plant invasion alters nitrogen dynamics in an arid grassland. Ecol Appl 11:1301–1310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fargione J, Brown CS, Tilman D (2003) Community assembly and invasion: an experimental test of neutral versus niche processes. Proc Natl Acad Sci 100:8916–8920

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Funk JL, Vitousek PM (2007) Resource-use efficiency and plant invasion in low-resource systems. Nature 446:1079–1108

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Grime JP, Hodgson JG (1987) Botanical contributions to contemporary ecological theory. New Phytol 106:283–295

    Google Scholar 

  • Große-Stoltenberg A (2009) Impacts of an “invasive engeneer”on the structure of Mediterranean-Atlantic dune and forest phytocoenoses. Diploma-Thesis, University Münster

  • Grund K, Conedera M, Schröder H, Walther GR (2005) The role of fire in the invasion process of evergreen broad-leaved species. Basic Appl Ecol 6:47–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris MR, Facelli JM (2003) Competition and resource availability in an annual plant community dominated by an invasive species, Carrichtera annua (L. Aschers.), in South Australia. Plant Ecol 167:19–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hellmann C, Sutter R (2008) Spatial influences of the N2-fixing invasive Acacia longifolia (Andrews) Willd. on leaf nitrogen traits of three indigenous species and on light interception regimes in a Portuguese dune ecosystem. Bachelor-Thesis, University Bielefeld

  • Hoagland DR, Arnon I (1950) The water culture method for growing plants without soil. (California Agriculture Experiment Station: Berkeley) Circular No. 347

  • Hobbs RJ, Huenneke LF (1992) Disturbance, diversity, and invasion: implications for Conservation. Conserv Biol 6:324–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Högberg P (1997) 15N natural abundance in soil–plant systems. New Phytol 137:179–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kowarik I (2003) Biologische Invasionen-Neophyten und Neozoen in Mitteleuropa. Ulmer, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer R (2005) Influence of chilling stress and competition on an alien invasive and native mediterranean species. Staatsexamensarbeit, University Bielefeld

  • Lambdon PW, Lloret F, Hume PE (2008) Do alien plants on Mediterranean islands tend to invade different niches from native species? Biol Invasion 10:703–716

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liao C, Peng R, Luo Y, Zhou X, Wu X, Fang C, Chen J, Li B (2008) Altered ecosystem carbon and nitrogen cycles by plant invasion: a meta-analysis. New Phytol 177:706–714

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur RH (1972) Geographical ecology: patterns in the distribution of species. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchante H, Marchante E, Freitas H (2003) Invasion of the Portuguese dune ecosystems by the exotic species Acacia longifolia (Andrews) Willd.: effects at the community level. In: Child LE, Brock JH, Brundu G, Prach K, Pyšek P, Wade PM, Williamson M (eds) Plant invasions: ecological threats and management solutions. Backhuys Publishers, The Netherlands, Leiden, pp 75–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchante H, Marchante E, Buscardo E, Maia J, Freitas H (2004) Recovery potential of dune ecosystems invaded by an exotic acacia species (Acacia longifolia). Weed Technol 18:1427–1433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marchante E, Kjoller A, Struwe S, Freitas H (2008a) Short- and long-term impacts of Acacia longifolia invasion on the belowground processes of a Mediterranean coastal dune ecosystem. Appl Soil Ecol 40:210–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marchante E, Kjoller A, Struwe S, Freitas H (2008b) Invasive Acacia longifolia induce changes in the microbial catabolic diversity of sand dunes. Soil Biol Biochem 40:2563–2568

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marchante E, Kjoller A, Struwe S, Freitas H (2009) Soil recovery after the removal of the N2-fixing invasive Acacia longifolia: consequences for ecosystem restoration. Biol Invasion. doi:10.1007/s10530-008-9295-1

  • Maron JL, Jefferies RL (1999) Bush lupine mortality, altered resource availability, and alternative vegetation states. Ecology 80:443–454

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKane RB, Johnson LC, Shaver GR et al (2002) Resource-based niches provide a basis for plant species diversity and dominance in Arctic Tundra. Nature 6867:68–70

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McKenney JL, Cripps MG, Price WJ, Hinz HL, Schwarzländer M (2007) No difference in competitive ability between invasive North American and native European Lepidium draba populations. Plant Ecol 193:292–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller TE, Burns JH, Munguia P, Walters EL et al (2005) A critical review of twenty years’ use of the resource-ratio theory. Am Nat 186:439–448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mooney HA, Hobbs RJ (eds) (2000) Invasive species in a changing world. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Naeem S, Knops JM, Tilman D, Howe KM, Kenndy T, Gale S (2000) Plant diversity increases resistance to invasion in the absence of covarying extrinsic factors. Oikos 91:97–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ortmeier K (2007) Importance of nursery plants for invasive process of Acacia longifolia in Portuguese dune ecosystems. Diploma Thesis, University Bielefeld

  • Peperkorn R (2005) Key factors of invasiveness of Acacia longifolia—experimental comparison with native species from Mediterranean sand ecosystems. PhD thesis

  • Peperkorn R, Werner C, Beyschlag W (2005) Phenotypic plasticity of an invasive acacia versus two native Mediterranean species. Funct Plant Biol 32:933–944

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pereira AJ, Evangelista H, Marchante H, Marchante E, Schreck C, Freitas H, Ramos M, Correia O, Máguas C (2004). Water use in dune ecosystems: native versus invasive species (Acacia longifolia). In: Procedings: VII Simposio Luso-espanhol de Relações Hidricas em plantas, pp 163–166

  • Rascher KG, Máguas C, Correia O, Werner C (2009) Tracing seasonal changes in water use of an invasive Acacia and a native Pine in Southern Portugal by measurement of sap flow. Acta Horticulturae (in press)

  • Richardson DM, Pyšek P (2006) Plant invasions: merging the concepts of species invasiveness and community invasibility. Prog Phys Geogr 30:409–431

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez-Echeverría S, Crisóstomo JA, Nabais C, Freitas H (2009) Belowground mutualists and the invasive ability of Acacia longifolia in coastal dunes of Portugal. Biol Invasions 11(3):651–661

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sperry JS, Hacke UG, Oren R, Comstock JP (2002) Water deficits and hydraulic limits to leaf water supply. Plant Cell Environ 25:251–263

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stock WD, Wienand KT, Baker AC (1995) Impacts of invading Nitrogen-fixing acacia species on patterns of nutrient cycling in two cape ecosystems: evidence from soil incubation studies and 15N natural abundance values. Oecologia 101:375–383

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Theoharides KA, Dukes JS (2007) Plant invasion across space and time: factors affecting nonindigenous species success during four stages of invasion. New Phytol 176:256–273

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tilman D (1980) Resources: a graphical-mechanistic approach to competition and predation. Am Nat 116:362–393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tilman D (1985) The resource-ratio of plant succession. Am Nat 125:827–852

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tilman D (2004) Niche tradeoffs, neutrality, and community structure: a stochastic theory of resource competition, invasion, and community assembly. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:10854–10861

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vila M, Weiner J (2004) Are invasive plant species better competitors than native plant species?—evidence from pair-wise experiments. Oikos 105:229–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek PM (1994) Beyond global warming: ecology and global change. Ecology 75:1861–1876

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek PM, Walker LR (1989) Biological invasion by Myrica faya in Hawaii: plant demography, nitrogen fixation, ecosystem effects. Ecol Monogr 59:247–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner C, Correia O (1996) Photoinhibition in cork-oak leaves under stress: influence of the bark-stripping on the chlorophyll fluorescence emission in Quercus suber L. Trees 10:288–292

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner C, Correia O, Beyschlag W (1999) Two different strategies of Mediterranean macchia plants to avoid photoinhibitory damage by excessive radiation levels during summer drought. Acta Oecol 20:15–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner C, Ryel RJ, Correia O, Beyschlag W (2001) Structural and functional variability within the canopy and its relevance for carbon gain and stress avoidance. Acta Oecol 22:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner C, Correia O, Beyschlag W (2002) Characteristic patterns of chronic and dynamic photoinhibition of different functional groups in a Mediterranean ecosystem. Funct Plant Biol 29:999–1011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner C, Peperkorn R, Máguas C, Beyschlag W (2008) Competitive balance between the alien invasive Acacia longifolia and native Mediterranean species. In: Tokarska-Guzik B, Brock JH, Brundu G, Child L, Daehler CC, Pyšek P (eds) Plant invasions: human perception, ecological impacts and management. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp 261–275

    Google Scholar 

  • Witkowski ETF (1991a) Effects of invasive alien Acacias on nutrient cycling in the coastal lowlands of the Cape Fynbos. J Appl Ecol 28:1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Witkowski ETF (1991b) Growth and competition between seedlings of Protea repens L. and the alien invasive, Acacia saligna (Labill.) Wendl. in relation to nutrient availability. Funct Ecol 5:101–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yelenik SG, Stock WD, Richardson DM (2004) Ecosystem level impacts of invasive Acacia saligna in the South African Fynbos. Rest Ecol 12:44–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zunzunegui M, Díaz Barradas MC, García Novo F (2000) Different phenotypic response of Halimium halimifolium in relation to groundwater availability. Plant Ecol 148:165–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Transdune, WE 2681/3-1) and the FCT (POCTI/BSE/34689/2000). We acknowledge valuable comments from K. Rascher and significant technical support during the experiment and isotope analysis from E. Furlkröger and B. Teichner, respectively.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental and Systems Ecology, University Bielefeld, Universitätsstraße 25, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany

    Christiane Werner, Ulrich Zumkier & Wolfram Beyschlag

  2. Centro de Biologia Ambiental, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    Cristina Máguas

Authors
  1. Christiane Werner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ulrich Zumkier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Wolfram Beyschlag
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Cristina Máguas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christiane Werner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Werner, C., Zumkier, U., Beyschlag, W. et al. High competitiveness of a resource demanding invasive acacia under low resource supply. Plant Ecol 206, 83–96 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-009-9625-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-009-9625-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation