Plant species’ origin predicts dominance and response to nutrient enrichment and herbivores in global grasslands

Seabloom, Eric W; Borer, Elizabeth T; Buckley, Yvonne M; Cleland, Elsa E; Davies, Kendi F; Firn, Jennifer; Harpole, W Stanley; Hautier, Yann; Lind, Eric M; MacDougall, Andrew S; Orrock, John L; Prober, Suzanne M; Adler, Peter B; Anderson, T Michael; Bakker, Jonathan D; Biederman, Lori A; Blumenthal, Dana M; Brown, Cynthia S; Brudvig, Lars A; Cadotte, Marc; Chu, Chengjin; Cottingham, Kathryn L; Crawley, Michael J; Damschen, Ellen I; Dantonio, Carla M; DeCrappeo, Nicole M; Du, Guozhen; Fay, Philip A; Frater, Paul; Gruner, Daniel S; Hagenah, Nicole; Hector, Andy; Hillebrand, Helmut; Hofmockel, Kirsten S; Humphries, Hope C; Jin, Virginia L; Kay, Adam; Kirkman, Kevin P; Klein, Julia A; Knops, Johannes M H; La Pierre, Kimberly J; Ladwig, Laura; Lambrinos, John G; Li, Qi; Li, Wei; Marushia, Robin; McCulley, Rebecca L; Melbourne, Brett A; Mitchell, Charles E; Moore, Joslin L; Morgan, John; Mortensen, Brent; O'Halloran, Lydia R; Pyke, David A; Risch, Anita C; Sankaran, Mahesh; Schuetz, Martin; Simonsen, Anna; Smith, Melinda D; Stevens, Carly J; Sullivan, Lauren; Wolkovich, Elizabeth; Wragg, Peter D; Wright, Justin; Yang, Louie

Plant species’ origin predicts dominance and response to nutrient enrichment and herbivores in global grasslands

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2015-Biederman-PlantSpecies.pdf (797.47 KB)

Date

2015-07-15T00:00:00Z

Authors

Seabloom, Eric W

Borer, Elizabeth T

Buckley, Yvonne M

Cleland, Elsa E

Davies, Kendi F

Firn, Jennifer

Harpole, W Stanley

Hautier, Yann

Lind, Eric M

MacDougall, Andrew S

Show 10 more

Organizational Units

Organizational Unit

Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology

Department

Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology

Abstract

Exotic species dominate many communities; however the functional significance of species' biogeographic origin remains highly contentious. This debate is fuelled in part by the lack of globally replicated, systematic data assessing the relationship between species provenance, function and response to perturbations. We examined the abundance of native and exotic plant species at 64 grasslands in 13 countries, and at a subset of the sites we experimentally tested native and exotic species responses to two fundamental drivers of invasion, mineral nutrient supplies and vertebrate herbivory. Exotic species are six times more likely to dominate communities than native species. Furthermore, while experimental nutrient addition increases the cover and richness of exotic species, nutrients decrease native diversity and cover. Native and exotic species also differ in their response to vertebrate consumer exclusion. These results suggest that species origin has functional significance, and that eutrophication will lead to increased exotic dominance in grasslands.

Comments

This article is published as Seabloom, E., Borer, E., Buckley, Y. et al. Plant species’ origin predicts dominance and response to nutrient enrichment and herbivores in global grasslands. Nat Commun 6, 7710 (2015). doi:10.1038/ncomms8710. Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted.