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Evidence for a shift in life-history strategy during the secondary phase of a plant invasion

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Abstract

We investigated the correlated response of several key traits of Lythrum salicaria L. to water availability gradients in introduced (Iowa, USA) and native (Switzerland, Europe) populations. This was done to investigate whether plants exhibit a shift in life-history strategy during expansion into more stressful habitats during the secondary phase of invasion, as has recently been hypothesized by Dietz and Edwards (Ecology 87(6):1359, 2006). Plants in invaded habitats exhibited a correlated increase in longevity and decrease in overall size in the transition into more stressful mesic habitats. In contrast, plants in the native range only exhibited a decrease in height. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that secondary invasion is taking place in L. salicaria, allowing it to be more successful under the more stressful mesic conditions in the invaded range. If this trend continues, L. salicaria may become a more problematic species in the future.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Young Jin Chun, and the Iowa State University Microscopy Lab for their help in the completion of this project. KM gratefully acknowledges support by the Velux Foundation and Iowa State University for his sabbatical at the ETH in Zürich, during which time this work was conducted. Field work was supported by the ETH Travel Fund. No support was provided by the United States National Science Foundation or United States Department of Agriculture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, 253 Bessey Hall, Ames, IA, 50011-1020, USA

    Kirk A. Moloney

  2. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Florian Knaus & Hansjörg Dietz

Authors
  1. Kirk A. Moloney
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  2. Florian Knaus
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  3. Hansjörg Dietz
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Correspondence to Kirk A. Moloney.

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Moloney, K.A., Knaus, F. & Dietz, H. Evidence for a shift in life-history strategy during the secondary phase of a plant invasion. Biol Invasions 11, 625–634 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-008-9277-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-008-9277-3

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