Potential for biotic resistance from herbivores to tropical and subtropical plant invasions in aquatic ecosystems

TY - JOUR

T1 - Potential for biotic resistance from herbivores to tropical and subtropical plant invasions in aquatic ecosystems

AU - Petruzzella, Antonella

AU - Grutters, B.M.C.

AU - Thomaz, S.M.

AU - Bakker, E.S.

N1 - 6359, AqE; Data Archiving: Data archived as supplementary material

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - 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 nutritionalquality and the presence of secondary metabolites related to anti-herbivory defenses. Studies across latitudinal gradients suggestthat aquatic plants from lower latitudes may be less nutritious and better defended than high latitude plants. Therefore, wehypothesized that native herbivores prefer temperate plants over plants from tropical and subtropical regions which would limit thestrength of biotic resistance that native temperate herbivores can provide against alien tropical and subtropical plants. Drawingupon the published literature we (1) investigated whether native temperate herbivores reduce the establishment or performance oftropical and subtropical alien plants in the field, and (2) analyzed herbivore consumption of tropical and subtropical versustemperate plants in laboratory feeding trials. In our literature survey, we found only three field studies which, in contrast to ourhypothesis, all demonstrated that the native herbivores (beavers, coots or generalist insect herbivores) significantly reduced thesuccess of invading tropical and subtropical plant species. The analysis of the feeding trials yielded mixed results. Ten out of twelvefeeding trials showed that (sub)tropical and temperate plants were consumed in equal amounts by both temperate and tropicalgeneralist ectothermic herbivores. The remaining trials showed higher consumption rate of both temperate and tropical plants bytropical snails. Although a body of evidence suggests that tropical plants are nutritionally poor and better defended (i.e., lesspalatable) compared to temperate plants, we conclude that in the majority of cases, herbivores would eat tropical plants as much astemperate plants. Thus, in agreement with the available field studies, evidence suggests that there is potential for biotic resistancefrom native generalist herbivores to tropical invasive plants in non-tropical areas.

AB - 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 nutritionalquality and the presence of secondary metabolites related to anti-herbivory defenses. Studies across latitudinal gradients suggestthat aquatic plants from lower latitudes may be less nutritious and better defended than high latitude plants. Therefore, wehypothesized that native herbivores prefer temperate plants over plants from tropical and subtropical regions which would limit thestrength of biotic resistance that native temperate herbivores can provide against alien tropical and subtropical plants. Drawingupon the published literature we (1) investigated whether native temperate herbivores reduce the establishment or performance oftropical and subtropical alien plants in the field, and (2) analyzed herbivore consumption of tropical and subtropical versustemperate plants in laboratory feeding trials. In our literature survey, we found only three field studies which, in contrast to ourhypothesis, all demonstrated that the native herbivores (beavers, coots or generalist insect herbivores) significantly reduced thesuccess of invading tropical and subtropical plant species. The analysis of the feeding trials yielded mixed results. Ten out of twelvefeeding trials showed that (sub)tropical and temperate plants were consumed in equal amounts by both temperate and tropicalgeneralist ectothermic herbivores. The remaining trials showed higher consumption rate of both temperate and tropical plants bytropical snails. Although a body of evidence suggests that tropical plants are nutritionally poor and better defended (i.e., lesspalatable) compared to temperate plants, we conclude that in the majority of cases, herbivores would eat tropical plants as much astemperate plants. Thus, in agreement with the available field studies, evidence suggests that there is potential for biotic resistancefrom native generalist herbivores to tropical invasive plants in non-tropical areas.

KW - international

UR - http://www.aquaticinvasions.net/2017/Supplements/AI_2017_Petruzzella_etal_Supplement.xlsx

U2 - 10.3391/ai.2017.12.3.08

DO - 10.3391/ai.2017.12.3.08

M3 - Article

SN - 1798-6540

VL - 12

SP - 343

EP - 353

JO - Aquatic Invasions

JF - Aquatic Invasions

IS - 3

ER -