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Evolutionary increases in defense during a biological invasion

  • Population ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Invasive plants generally escape from specialist herbivores of their native ranges but may experience serious damage from generalists. As a result, invasive plants may evolve increased resistance to generalists and tolerance to damage. To test these hypotheses, we carried out a common garden experiment comparing 15 invasive populations with 13 native populations of Chromolaena odorata, including putative source populations identified with molecular methods and binary choice feeding experiments using three generalist herbivores. Plants from invasive populations of C. odorata had both higher resistance to three generalists and higher tolerance to simulated herbivory (shoot removal) than plants from native populations. The higher resistance of plants from invasive populations was associated with higher leaf C content and densities of leaf trichomes and glandular scales, and lower leaf N and water contents. Growth costs were detected for tolerance but not for resistance, and plants from invasive populations of C. odorata showed lower growth costs of tolerance. Our results suggest that invasive plants may evolve to increase both resistance to generalists and tolerance to damage in introduced ranges, especially when the defense traits have low or no fitness costs. Greater defenses in invasive populations may facilitate invasion by C. odorata by reducing generalist impacts and increasing compensatory growth after damage has occurred.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Franklin Axelrod, Gregor F. Barclay, Tran Xuan Cuong, Dao-Ling Du, Carmelita Garcia-Hansel, Inderjit, Daphawan Khamcha, Jorge A. Sánchez, Ravi Sangakkara, Tuanjit Sritongchuay, Alfonso Valient-Banuet, Steven W. Woodmansee, Chang-Long Zhang, and Xiao-Ming Zou for collecting the seeds, Dr. De-Niu Chen for identifying the snail species, and the staff of the Biogeochemistry Laboratory of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden for measuring the leaf nutrient concentrations. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30830027; 31270582). The experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which the experiments were performed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650223, China

    Zhi-Yong Liao, Yu-Long Zheng & Yan-Bao Lei

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Zhi-Yong Liao & Yu-Long Zheng

  3. College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, 110866, China

    Yu-Long Feng

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  1. Zhi-Yong Liao
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  2. Yu-Long Zheng
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  3. Yan-Bao Lei
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Correspondence to Yu-Long Feng.

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Communicated by Jennifer A Lau.

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Liao, ZY., Zheng, YL., Lei, YB. et al. Evolutionary increases in defense during a biological invasion. Oecologia 174, 1205–1214 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-013-2852-z

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