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Understanding invasions: the rise and fall of diffuse knapweed (Centaurea diffusa) in North America

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Invasive Plants: Ecological and Agricultural Aspects

Summary

The relative importance of mechanisms explaining the invasiveness and dominance of alien plant species remains a subject of active debate. Diffuse knapweed has been identified as a strong competitor capable of using allelopathic chemicals to achieve dominance in plant communities that have not coevolved with this species. Positive feedbacks with soil biota may further enhance the competitive abilities of Centaurea species. The failure of classical biological control after 30 years of effort was seen as negative evidence for the enemy escape hypothesis as a mechanism explaining dominance. However, control of this invasive species by insect herbivory now appears to have been achieved in widely separated ecosystems in North America. While we do not know if these same insects exerted this regulatory function in the native habitat of diffuse knapweed, we do see top-down controls operating effectively in the invaded ecosystems. Traits conferring strong competition such as enhanced rates of allelopathic chemical production or those produced by new plant—microbial interactions formed when exotic plants enter new communities can be negated by biological control mechanisms.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309-0450, USA

    Timothy R. Seastedt

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697-2525, USA

    Katharine N. Suding

  3. Stratus Consulting, Boulder, Colorado, 80303, USA

    Katherine D. LeJeune

Authors
  1. Timothy R. Seastedt
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  2. Katharine N. Suding
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  3. Katherine D. LeJeune
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems (CEMDE) School of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

    Inderjit

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© 2005 Birkhäuser Verlag/Switzerland

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Seastedt, T.R., Suding, K.N., LeJeune, K.D. (2005). Understanding invasions: the rise and fall of diffuse knapweed (Centaurea diffusa) in North America. In: Inderjit (eds) Invasive Plants: Ecological and Agricultural Aspects. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7643-7380-6_8

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