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Simulated nitrogen deposition increased herbivore resistance and competitive ability of an invasive plant species over a native co-occurring congeneric species

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Abstract

Background and Aims

The deposition of atmospheric nitrogen has increased globally and interfered with plant growth and development. However, only a few studies have examined the influence of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on plant–herbivore interactions in the framework of plant invasion, and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

Methods

In this study, we examined the changes in growth and herbivore resistance of the invasive weed Alternanthera philoxeroides and its native co-occurring congener Alternanthera sessilis in response to simulated nitrogen deposition. We further investigated the competitive ability of these two plant species grown in mono- and mix-culture conditions with or without herbivore pressures.

Results

The results indicated that simulated nitrogen deposition largely increased the growth of both plant species, while A. philoxeroides produced more biomass than A. sessilis. The specialist and generalist herbivores showed contrasting preferences for the two plant species in the controls, whereas A. philoxeroides showed greater resistance to both herbivore species under simulated nitrogen deposition. Further investigation of host plant traits related to leaf structural and chemical defences suggested that such difference in herbivore resistance between the two plant species could be attributed to the increased levels of structural defense in A. philoxeroides and reduced levels of defensive metabolites in A. sessilis. The inter-specific competition test revealed that simulated nitrogen deposition largely increased the competitive advantage of A. philoxeroides over A. sessilis, regardless of the presence or absence of herbivores.

Conclusion

Our study suggests that the invasiveness of A. philoxeroides may be enhanced by increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Dryad at https://datadryad.org/stash/share/EcctktVqEYY11f9089JBTk8g3zt7Tm_SidsFRtvremw.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No.: 2022YFC2601100), Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 32001204), the Department of Science and Technology of Yunnan Province (Grant No.: 202405AS350011), and the Yunnan Fundamental Research Projects (Grant No.: 202401AT070437).

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Author notes

  1. Tiantian Lin and Zening Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Transboundary Ecosecurity of Southwest China, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaptation and Evolutionary Ecology and Centre for Invasion Biology, Institute of Biodiversity, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650504, Yunnan, China

    Tiantian Lin, Man Ke, Guoqing Zhu & Bo Li

  2. Key Laboratory of National Forestry & Grassland Administration On Forest Resources Conservation and Ecological Safety in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River, College of Forestry, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China

    Tiantian Lin, Zening Wang, Wanci He & Abdul Manan

  3. Above and Belowground Interactions, Institute of Biology, Leiden University, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Klaas Vrieling

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  1. Tiantian Lin
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Contributions

TL and BL planned and designed the research; ZW and MK performed experiments and analyzed data; GZ and AM contributed to material collection and method development; TL, ZW, KV and BL wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to the corrections of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bo Li.

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Lin, T., Wang, Z., Ke, M. et al. Simulated nitrogen deposition increased herbivore resistance and competitive ability of an invasive plant species over a native co-occurring congeneric species. Plant Soil (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-024-06707-6

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