Authors: Xinmin Lu Jianqing Ding
Publish Date: 2009/02/04
Volume: 12, Issue: 1, Pages: 179-189
Abstract
Plant compensatory growth is proposed to be insidious to biological control and known to vary under different environmental conditions However the effects of microsite conditions on compensation capacity and its indirect impacts on biological control of plant invaders have received little attention Alligator weed Alternanthera phioxeroides is an invasive plant worldwide growing in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats that are often affected by flooding Biological control insects have been successful in suppressing the plant in many aquatic habitats but have failed in terrestrial habitats To evaluate the impact of flooding on compensation capacity we conducted common garden and greenhouse experiments in which plants were grown under different moisture conditions aquatic versus terrestrial Our results show that plants were able to fully recover from continued herbivory in the terrestrial habitat but failed in the aquatic habitat indicating a floodingregulated plant compensatory capacity Also the grazed plants increased belowground growth and reproductive root bud formation in the terrestrial habitat but there was no such difference in the aquatic habitat Our findings suggest that the differing plant compensatory capacity affected by flooding may explain the different biological control efficacy of alligator weed in aquatic and terrestrial habitats Understanding mechanisms in plant invader compensation in different microsite conditions is important for improving management efficiencyWe thank Wenfeng Guo Hongjun Dai Wei Huang Yi Wang for their field and laboratory assistance The manuscript was improved by comments from Mic Julien Ashley Baldridge and Matthew Barnes This work was funded by the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
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