Novel weapons testing: are invasive plants more chemically defended than native plants?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Exotic species have been hypothesized to successfully invade new habitats by virtue of possessing novel biochemistry that repels native enemies. Despite the pivotal long-term consequences of invasion for native food-webs, to date there are no experimental studies examining directly whether exotic plants are any more or less biochemically deterrent than native plants to native herbivores.

Methodology/principal findings

In a direct test of this hypothesis using herbivore feeding assays with chemical extracts from 19 invasive plants and 21 co-occurring native plants, we show that invasive plant biochemistry is no more deterrent (on average) to a native generalist herbivore than extracts from native plants. There was no relationship between extract deterrence and leng

SUBMITTER: Lind EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2862706 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature