Shift in competitive ability mediated by soil biota in an invasive plant.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the shifts in competitive ability and its driving forces is key to predict the future of plant invasion. Changes in the competition environment and soil biota are two selective forces that impose remarkable influences on competitive ability. By far, evidence of the interactive effects of competition environment and soil biota on competitive ability of invasive species is rare. Here, we investigated their interactive effects using an invasive perennial vine, Mikania micrantha. The competitive performance of seven M. micrantha populations varying in their conspecific and heterospecific abundance were monitored in a greenhouse experiment, by manipulating soil biota (live and sterilized) and competition conditions (competition-free, intraspecific, and intersp

SUBMITTER: Huang F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8668795 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature