Comparison of damage to native and exotic tallgrass prairie plants by natural enemies |
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Authors: | Xuemei Han Shauna P Dendy Karen A Garrett Liang Fang Melinda D Smith |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, P.O. Box 208106, New Haven, CT 06520-8106, USA;(2) School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 210 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA;(3) Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506-5502, USA |
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Abstract: | We surveyed the prevalence and amount of leaf damage related to herbivory and pathogens on 12 pairs of exotic (invasive and
noninvasive) and ecologically similar native plant species in tallgrass prairie to examine whether patterns of damage match
predictions from the enemy release hypothesis. We also assessed whether natural enemy impacts differed in response to key
environmental factors in tallgrass prairie by surveying the prevalence of rust on the dominant C4 grass, Andropogon gerardii, and its congeneric invasive exotic C4 grass, A. bladhii, in response to fire and nitrogen fertilization treatments. Overall, we found that the native species sustain 56.4% more
overall leaf damage and 83.6% more herbivore-related leaf damage when compared to the exotic species. Moreover, we found that
the invasive exotic species sustained less damage from enemies relative to their corresponding native species than the noninvasive
exotic species. Finally, we found that burning and nitrogen fertilization both significantly increased the prevalence of rust
fungi in the native grass, while rust fungi rarely occurred on the exotic grass. These results indicate that reduced damage
from enemies may in part explain the successful naturalization of exotic species and the spread of invasive exotic species
in tallgrass prairie. |
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Keywords: | Enemy release hypothesis Grassland Invasiveness Leaf damage Rust fungi |
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