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Responses to simulated nitrogen deposition in invasive and native or non-invasive clonal plants in China

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Abstract

Previous studies suggest that a disproportionately high number of invasive plant species are clonal, and that an increase in N availability often promotes the spread of introduced plants. We tested the hypothesis that greater ability to increase performance in response to the increase in N availability is associated with greater invasiveness in clonal plant species on a regional basis in China, where the potentials for new introductions and for N deposition are high. We compared growth, allocation of mass, morphology, and N use efficiency in six pairs of closely related, widespread species of clonal plants with and without N addition designed to simulate future N deposition of 15 g N m−2 year−1. Within each pair, one species was introduced and invasive in China, and the other was native or in one case introduced but not invasive. Added N increased the final dry mass of species by 10–120 % and the final number of ramets by up to 300 %. However, responses to N did not differ consistently (P > 0.05) between invasive and native or non-invasive species; increase in total mass with added N ranged from being 6 times greater in the invasive species to 3 times greater in the native species in a pair. Results suggest that increased N availability due to deposition in China will favor the spread of some but not all introduced, clonal plant species in China.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Xiong-Ying Wu, Han Quan, Nai-Qun Yu, Jia–Jia Liu, and Qian–Qian Deng for research assistance. Research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (TD-JC-2013-1), and NSFC (31200313). This material was based in part on work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, since Peter Alpert participated in the study while working at the Foundation, but does not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Hong-Li Li, Lei Ning & Fei-Hai Yu

  2. Biology Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Peter Alpert

  3. Institute of Ecology, Taizhou University, Linhai, 317000, Zhejiang, China

    Jun-Min Li

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  1. Hong-Li Li
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  2. Lei Ning
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Correspondence to Fei-Hai Yu.

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Communicated by S. M. Emery.

Hong-Li Li and Lei Ning have contributed equally to this article.

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Li, HL., Ning, L., Alpert, P. et al. Responses to simulated nitrogen deposition in invasive and native or non-invasive clonal plants in China. Plant Ecol 215, 1483–1492 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-014-0408-x

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