Potential for biotic resistance from herbivores to tropical and subtropical plant invasions in aquatic ecosystems
| Autor: | Antonella Petruzzella, Elisabeth S. Bakker, Sidinei Magela Thomaz, Bart M. C. Grutters |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Aquatic Ecology (AqE) |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
2. Zero hunger
0106 biological sciences Herbivore Restoration ecology Ecology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology fungi Biodiversity food and beverages Subtropics 15. Life on land Aquatic Science Biology Generalist and specialist species 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences humanities Aquatic plant international Temperate climate 14. Life underwater Literature survey Plant tolerance to herbivory Water Science and Technology |
| Zdroj: | Aquatic Invasions, 12(3), 343-353. Regional Euro-Asian Biological Invasions Centre |
| ISSN: | 1798-6540 |
| Popis: | Invasions of tropical and subtropical aquatic plants threaten biodiversity and cause ecological and economic impacts worldwide. An urgent question is whether native herbivores are able to inhibit the spread of these alien species thus providing biotic resistance. The potential for biotic resistance to these plants depends on plant traits that affect palatability to herbivores, i.e., plant nutritional quality and the presence of secondary metabolites related to anti-herbivory defenses. Studies across latitudinal gradients suggest that aquatic plants from lower latitudes may be less nutritious and better defended than high latitude plants. Therefore, we hypothesized that native herbivores prefer temperate plants over plants from tropical and subtropical regions which would limit the strength of biotic resistance that native temperate herbivores can provide against alien tropical and subtropical plants. Drawing upon the published literature we (1) investigated whether native temperate herbivores reduce the establishment or performance of tropical and subtropical alien plants in the field, and (2) analyzed herbivore consumption of tropical and subtropical versus temperate plants in laboratory feeding trials. In our literature survey, we found only three field studies which, in contrast to our hypothesis, all demonstrated that the native herbivores (beavers, coots or generalist insect herbivores) significantly reduced the success of invading tropical and subtropical plant species. The analysis of the feeding trials yielded mixed results. Ten out of twelve feeding trials showed that (sub)tropical and temperate plants were consumed in equal amounts by both temperate and tropical generalist ectothermic herbivores. The remaining trials showed higher consumption rate of both temperate and tropical plants by tropical snails. Although a body of evidence suggests that tropical plants are nutritionally poor and better defended (i.e., less palatable) compared to temperate plants, we conclude that in the majority of cases, herbivores would eat tropical plants as much as temperate plants. Thus, in agreement with the available field studies, evidence suggests that there is potential for biotic resistance from native generalist herbivores to tropical invasive plants in non-tropical areas. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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