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Effect of plant species richness on invasibility of experimental plant communities

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Abstract

Invasion of unsown species to artificially created assemblages of grassland species was investigated in a 3-year field experiment. In the experiment, assemblages varying in species richness (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 species) and functional group richness (1–4, grasses, legumes, rosette forbs, and creeping forbs) were grown in control and fertilized plots, without any attempt to prevent the invasion of unsown species or to weed them. The relationship between species and functional group diversity and above-ground biomass was positive for sown species in all study years (2003, 2004 and 2005). In the latter 2 years, weed invader biomass decreased significantly with increasing biomass of sown species and their functional group richness, but not with number of species. However, no suppressive effect of species or functional group richness beyond that by increased biomass of residents was found. In fact, slight but significant positive partial effect of species richness was found, suggesting that the negative effect of the same amount of resident biomass on invaders is stronger when the biomass is composed of fewer species. The negative relationship between the number of functional groups of residents and invader biomass suggested that better coverage of functional trait space could be a mechanism promoting the resistance to invasion. In Addition, species composition of invaders were significantly related to initial composition of sown residents.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Leoš Klimeš, Gunnar Austrheim, Ruddy van Diggelen, Petra Lantová, Zuzana Münzbergerová and Štěpán Janeček for many valuable comments to early versions of the manuscript. The research was supported by the TLinks project of the V Framework Program of the European Community within the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Program (contract number EVK2-CT-2001-00123) and national grants GAČR 206/03/H034, MŠMT 6007335801 and LC06073.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Plant Ecology, Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dukelská 135, 379 82, Trebon, Czech Republic

    Vojtěch Lanta

  2. Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

    Vojtěch Lanta & Jan Lepš

  3. Institute of Entomology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovská 31, 370 05, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

    Jan Lepš

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  1. Vojtěch Lanta
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  2. Jan Lepš
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Correspondence to Vojtěch Lanta.

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Lanta, V., Lepš, J. Effect of plant species richness on invasibility of experimental plant communities. Plant Ecol 198, 253–263 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-008-9401-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-008-9401-6

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