Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Diversity- and density-mediated allelopathic effects of resident plant communities on invasion by an exotic plant

  • Regular Article
  • Published:
Plant and Soil Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Aims

Resident plants can exert allelopathic effects on introduced exotic plants, and resistance to exotic plant invasions usually increases with diversity and density of the resident plant communities. We hypothesize that allelopathic effects increase with increasing diversity and density of the community, and thereby contribute to the community’s resistance against invaders.

Methods

To test these hypotheses, we conducted two greenhouse experiments in which we grew five individuals of the exotic invasive plant Solidago canadensis in pots without residents and in artificially assembled resident plant communities either with two levels of diversity (4 or 8 resident plant species) or two levels of density (8 or 32 individuals, representing 8 species). We used activated carbon as the allelopathy-neutralizer treatment in both the diversity and the density experiment.

Results

In the absence of activated carbon, S. canadensis grew worse in the presence of residents, and when diversity or density of the residents increased. These negative effects, however, largely disappeared in the presence of activated carbon, and at the highest resident density S. canadensis even performed better with than without activated carbon.

Conclusions

Low invasibility of species-rich and dense plant communities is likely to be at least in part associated with increased allelopathy. Our study provides the first evidence that increasing allelopathy could be a mechanism underlying the diversity and density effects on community invasibility.

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

Similar content being viewed by others

Data accessibility

After acceptance, all data will be available on request.

References

  • Abhilasha D, Quintana N, Vivanco J, Joshi J (2008) Do allelopathic compounds in invasive Solidago canadensis s.l. restrain the native European flora? J Ecol 96:993–1001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aguilera AG (2011) The influence of soil community density on plant-soil feedbacks: an important unknown in plant invasion. Ecol Model 222:3214–3420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arroyo AI, Pueyo Y, Luz Giner M, Foronda A, Sanchez-Navarrete P, Saiz H, Alados CL (2018) Evidence for chemical interference effect of an allelopathic plant on neighboring plant species: a field study. PLoS One 13:e0193421

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Baker H (1965) Characteristics and modes of origin of weeds. In: Baker HG, Stebbins GL (eds) The Genetics of Colonizing Species. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown RL, Fridley JD (2003) Control of plant species diversity and community invasibility by species immigration: seed richness versus seed density. Oikos 102:15–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burke MJW, Grime JP (1996) An experimental study of plant community invasibility. Ecology 77:776–790

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byun C, Lee EJ (2017) Ecological application of biotic resistance to control the invasion of an invasive plant, Ageratina altissima. Ecol Evol 7:2181–2192

  • Callaway RM, Ridenour WM (2004) Novel weapons: invasive success and the evolution of increased competitive ability. Front Ecol Environ 2:236–443

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Callaway RM, Ridenour WM, Trevor R, Tiffiny W, Vivanco JM (2005) Natural selection for resistance to the allelopathic effects of invasive plants. J Ecol 93:576–583

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen T, Liu WL, Zhang CB, Wang J (2012) Effects of Solidago canadensis invasion on dynamics of native plant communities and their mechanisms. Chinese J Plant Ecol 36:253–261

  • Christina M, Rouifed S, Puijalon S, Vallier F, Meiffren G, Bellvert F, Piola F (2015) Allelopathic effect of a native species on a major plant invader in Europe. Sci Nat 102:12

  • Cummings J, Parker I, Gilbert G (2012) Allelopathy: a tool for weed management in forest restoration. Plant Ecol 213:1975–1989

    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 

  • Dostál P (2011) Plant competitive interactions and invasiveness: searching for the effects of phylogenetic relatedness and origin on competition intensity. Am Nat 177:655–667

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dukes JS (2002) Species composition and diversity affect grassland susceptibility and response to invasion. Ecol Appl 12:602–617

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Einhellig FA (1995) Allelopathy: current status and future goals. In: Inderjit DKMM, Einhellig FA (eds) Allelopathy: organisms, processes and applications. American Chemical Society, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Elton CS (1958) The ecology of invasions. Methuen, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Emery SM, Gross KL (2007) Dominant species identity, not community evenness, regulates invasion in experimental grassland plant communities. Ecology 88:954–964

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fargione JE, Tilman D (2005) Diversity decreases invasion via both sampling and complementarity effects. Ecol Lett 8:604–611

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frankow-Lindberg BE (2012) Grassland plant species diversity decreases invasion by increasing resource use. Oecologia 169:793–802

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gallien L, Carboni M (2017) The community ecology of invasive species: where are we and what's next? Ecography 40:335–352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goel U, Saxena DB, Kumar B (1989) Comparative study of allelopathy as exhibited by Prosopis juliflora Swartz and Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce. J Chem Ecol 15:591–600

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grace JB, Harrison S, Cornell H (2017) Is biotic resistance enhanced by natural variation in diversity? Oikos 126:1484–1492

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo W-Y, van Kleunen M, Winter M, Weigelt P, Stein A, Pierce S, Pergl J, Moser D, Maurel N, Lenzner B, Kreft H, Essl F, Dawson W, Pyšek (2018) The role of adaptive strategies in plant naturalization. Ecol Lett 21: 1380–1389

  • Hector A, Dobson K, Minns A, Bazeley-White E, Lawton J (2001) Community diversity and invasion resistance: an experimental test in a grassland ecosystem and a review of comparable studies. Ecol Res 16:819–831

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes C, Figary S, Schulz K, Caceres C (2016) Effects of diversity on community assembly in newly formed pond communities. Ecosphere 7:e01377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hou Y, Peng S, Ni G, Chen L (2012) Inhibition of invasive species Mikania micrantha H.B.K. by native dominant trees in China. Allelopath J 29:307–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Inderjit (2001) Soil: environmental effects on allelochemical activity. Agron J 93:79–84

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Inderjit, Callaway R (2003) Experimental designs for the study of allelopathy. Plant Soil 256:1–11

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Inderjit, Duke SO (2003) Ecophysiological aspects of allelopathy. Planta 217:529–539

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kabouw P, Nab M, van Dam N (2010) Activated carbon addition affects substrate pH and germination of six plant species. Soil Biol Biochem 42:1165–1167

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Keane RM, Crawley MJ (2002) Exotic plant invasions and the enemy release hypothesis. Trends Ecol Evol 17:164–170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kempel A, Chrobock T, Fischer M, Rohr R, van Kleunen M (2013) Determinants of plant establishment success in a multispecies introduction experiment with native and alien species. Proc Natl Acad Sci 110:12727–12732

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lau JA, Puliafico KP, Kopshever JA, Steltzer H, Jarvis E, Schwarzländer M, Strauss S, Hufbauer R (2008) Inference of allelopathy is complicated by effects of activated carbon on plant growth. New Phytol 178:412–423

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levine JM (2000) Species diversity and biological invasions: relating local process to community pattern. Science 288:852–854

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levine MJ, Adler PB, Yelenik SG (2004) A meta-analysis of biotic resistance to exotic plant invasions. Ecol Lett 7:975–989

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li B, Hsu PS, Chen JK (2001) Perspectives on general trends of plant invasions with special reference to alien weed flora of Shanghai. Chinese Biodivers Sci 9:446–457

  • Li YZ, Yin X, Wei W, Yang EY, hang Y, Tian ZH, Da LJ (2010) Inhibition of local plant Phragmites communis on the invasive plant Solidago canadensis. Acta Ecol Sin 30:6881–6891

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liao H, Luo W, Peng S, Callaway RM (2015) Plant diversity, soil biota and resistance to exotic invasion. Divers Distrib 21:826–835

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liebman MS (2006) Seed mass affects the susceptibility of weed and crop species to phytotoxins extracted from red clover shoots. Weed Sci 54:340–345

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lou Y, Davis A, Yannarell A (2016) Interactions between allelochemicals and the microbial community affect weed suppression following cover crop residue incorporation into soil. Plant Soil 399:357–371

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marraffini ML, Geller JB (2015) Species richness and interacting factors control invasibility of a marine community. Proc R Soc B Biol Sci 282:151–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michelan TS, Thomaz SM, Bini LM (2013) Native macrophyte density and richness affect the invasiveness of a tropical Poaceae species. PLoS One 8:e60004

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ning L, Yu F-H, van Kleunen M (2016) Allelopathy of a native grassland community as a potential mechanism of resistance against invasion by introduced plants. Biol Invasions 18:3481–3493

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ortega YK, Pearson DE (2005) Weak vs. strong invaders of natural plant communities: assessing invasibility and impact. Ecol Appl 15:651–661

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker C, Riches CR (1993) Parasitic weeds of the world: biology and control. CAB international, Wallingford, England

  • Parsons W, Cuthbertson E (2001) Noxious weeds of Australia. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson D, Ortega Y, Eren O, Hierro J (2018) Community assembly theory as a framework for biological invasions. Trends Ecol Evol 33:313–325

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Petruzzella A, Manschot J, van Leeuwen C, Grutters B, Bakker E (2018) Mechanisms of invasion resistance of aquatic plant communities. Front Plant Sci 9:134

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Prati D, Bossdorf O (2004) Allelopathic inhibition of germination by Alliaria petiolata (Brassicaceae). Am J Bot 91:285–288

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Qin R-M, Zheng Y-L, Valiente-Banuet A, Callaway R, Barclay G, Silva Pereyra C, Feng Y-L (2013) The evolution of increased competitive ability, innate competitive advantages, and novel biochemical weapons act in concert for a tropical invader. New Phytol 197:979–988

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rabotnov TA (1982) Importance of the evolutionary approach to the study of allelopathy. Ekologia 3:5–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridenour W, Callaway R (2001) The relative importance of allelopathy in interference: the effects of an invasive weed on a native bunchgrass. Oecologia 126:444–450

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • SAS Institute Inc. (2004) SAS/STAT 9.1 User's Guide. Cary, North Carolina, USA

  • Schmidt SK, Ley RE (1999) Microbial competition and soil structure limit the expression of phytochemicals in nature. In: In principles and practices in plant ecology: allelochemical interactions. CRC Press, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1995) Biometry. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Song Y-B, Yu F-H, Keser LJ, Dawson W, Fischer M, Dong M, van Kleunen M (2013) United we stand, divided we fall: a meta-analysis of experiments on clonal integration and its relationship to invasiveness. Oecologia 171:317–327.

  • Stohlgren T, Barnett D, Kartesz J (2003) The rich get richer: patterns of plant invasions in the United States. Front Ecol Environ 1:11–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun Y, Mueller-Schaerer H, Maron JL, Schaffner U (2015) Origin matters: diversity affects the performance of alien invasive species but not of native species. Am Nat 185:725–736

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tan J, Pu Z, Ryberg W, Jiang L (2015) Resident-invader phylogenetic relatedness, not resident phylogenetic diversity, controls community invasibility. Am Nat 186:59–71

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Teixeira MC, Bini LM, Thomaz SM (2017) Biotic resistance buffers the effects of nutrient enrichment on the success of a highly invasive aquatic plant. Freshw Biol 62:65–71

    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 

  • Tollenaar M, Dibo A, Aguilara A, Weise S, Swanton C (1994) Effect of crop density on weed interference in maize. Agron J 86:591–595

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turnbull L, Jonathan M, Fergus A, Petermann J (2010) Species diversity reduces invasion success in pathogen-regulated communities. Oikos 119:1040–1046

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Kleunen M, Maurel N, Dawson W (2015) Characteristics of successful alien plants. Mol Ecol 24:1954–1968

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van Kleunen M, Bossdorf O, Dawson M (2018) The ecology and evolution of alien plants. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 49:25–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Ruijven J, De Deyn GB, Berendse F (2003) Diversity reduces invasibility in experimental plant communities: the role of plant species. Ecol Lett 6:910–918

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vojik M, Boublik K (2018) Fear of the dark: decline in plant diversity and invasion of alien species due to increased tree canopy density and eutrophication in lowland woodlands. Plant Ecol 219:749–758

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y-J, Müller-Schärer H, van Kleunen M, Cai A-M, Zhang P, Yan R, Dong B-C, Yu F-H (2017) Invasive alien plants benefit more from clonal integration in heterogeneous environments than natives. New Phytol 216:1072–1078

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wardle DA (2001) Experimental demonstration that plant diversity reduces invasibility - evidence of a biological mechanism or a consequence of sampling effect? Oikos 95:161–170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wardle DA, Nilsson MC, Gallet C, Ackrisson OZ (1998) An ecosystem-level perspective of allelopathy. Biol Rev 73:305–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weidenhamer JD, Romeo JT (2005) Allelochemicals as a mechanism for resisting invasion: the case of Polygonella myriophylla. In: Inderjit (ed) Invasive plants: ecological and agricultural aspects. Birkhäuser Basel, Switzerland

  • Weidenhamer JD, Hartnett DC, Romeo JT (1989) Density-dependent phytotoxicity: distinguishing resource competition and allelopathic interference in plants. J Appl Ecol 26:613–624

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weißhuhn K, Prati D (2009) Activated carbon may have undesired side effects for testing allelopathy in invasive plants. Basic Appl Ecol 10:500–507

  • Wu H, Carrillo J, Ding J (2017) Species diversity and environmental determinants of aquatic and terrestrial communities invaded by Alternanthera philoxeroides. Sci Total Environ 581:666–675

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wurst S, Vendor V, Rillig M (2010) Testing for allelopathic effects in plant competition: does activated carbon disrupt plant symbioses? Plant Ecol 211:19–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zak D, Holmes W, White D, Peacock A, Tilman D (2003) Plant diversity, soil microbial communities, and ecosystem function: are there any links? Ecology 84:2042–2050

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang S, Jin Y, Tang J, Chen X (2009) The invasive plant Solidago canadensis L. suppresses local soil pathogens through allelopathy. Appl Soil Ecol 41:215–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu D, Wang P, Zhang W, Yuan Y, Li B, Wang J (2015) Sampling and complementarity effects of plant diversity on resource use increases the invasion resistance of communities. PLoS One 10:e0141559

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC1201100) and NSFC (31570413).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Wetland Ecology & Clone Ecology, Taizhou University, Taizhou, 318000, Zhejiang Province, China

    Michael Opoku Adomako, Min Tang & Fei-Hai Yu

  2. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou, 318000, Zhejiang Province, China

    Michael Opoku Adomako, Min Tang, Mark van Kleunen & Fei-Hai Yu

  3. Institute of Environment and Ecology, Academy of Environmental Health and Ecological Security, School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, Jiangsu Province, China

    Michael Opoku Adomako & Dao-Lin Du

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

    Lei Ning & Fei-Hai Yu

  5. Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, D-78464, Constance, Germany

    Mark van Kleunen

Authors
  1. Michael Opoku Adomako
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lei Ning
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Min Tang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Dao-Lin Du
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Mark van Kleunen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Fei-Hai Yu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

FHY and MvK conceived the ideas and designed methodology; LN collected the data; FHY and LN analysed the data; MOA and MT led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fei-Hai Yu.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Hans Lambers.

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 93 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Adomako, M.O., Ning, L., Tang, M. et al. Diversity- and density-mediated allelopathic effects of resident plant communities on invasion by an exotic plant. Plant Soil 440, 581–592 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-04123-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-019-04123-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation