Nitrogen addition frequency and propagule pressure influence Solidago canadensis invasion into native plant community

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Propagule pressure (i.e., the number of propagules) has long been recognized to play an essential role in plant invasion. But it is not clear whether propagule pressure influences the invasion of exotic plants into native plant communities when different frequencies of nitrogen are added.

Method

We established an experiment with three plant communities that included native plant communities alone (four grasses, two legumes and two forbs) or native plant communities with one or five invasive plants, Solidago canadensis, under three frequencies of nitrogen addition (no addition or low or high addition with the same amount).

Results

High propagule pressure significantly enhanced the biomass and relative dominance index of S. canadensis. Moreover, high propagule pressure only decreased the total and aboveground biomass of the legumes. However, the competitive effect between S. canadensis and the native community and biomass of the whole native community varied according to different frequencies.

Conclusion

Overall, high propagule pressure encouraged invasion by S. canadensis, while alow nitrogen frequency was advantageous for the native community to resist invasion in this experiment. The results provide a scientific basis to manage and control the invasion of S. canadensis.

KEYWORDS:

• clonal plants
• invasiveness
• nitrogen addition level
• propagule number

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2021YFC2600400), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant number 2015ZCQ-BH-01; the China Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment under Grant number 2017ZX07602-004-003; the Ten-Thousand-Talent Program of Zhejiang Province under Grant number 2018R52016; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant number 31470475.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Hong-Li Li, upon reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [2021YFC2600400];Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2015ZCQ-BH-01]; China Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment [2017ZX07602-004-003]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [31470475]; Zhejiang Provincial Ten Thousand Plan for Young Top Talents [2018R52016].