What determines positive, neutral, and negative impacts of Solidago canadensis invasion on native plant species richness?

ABSTRACT: Whether plant invasions pose a great threat to native plant diversity is still hotly debated due to conflicting findings. More importantly, we know little about the mechanisms of invasion impacts on native plant richness. We examined how Solidago canadensis invasion influenced native plants using data from 291 pairs of invaded and uninvaded plots covering an entire invaded range, and quantified the relative contributions of climate, recipient communities, and S. canadensis to invasion impacts. There were three types of invasion consequences for native plant species richness (i.e., positive, neutral, and negative impacts). Overall, the relative contributions of recipient communities, S. canadensis and climate to invasion impacts were 71.39%, 21.46% and 7.15%, respectively; furthermore, the

SUBMITTER: Dong LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4648078 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature