Does Lack of Herbivory and Disease Explain the Success of an Alien Plant Species?: Experimental Tests

William Marsh Rice University, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract PI: Siemann and Rogers Institution: William Marsh Rice University Proposal Number: DEB-9981654 The alien Chinese Tallow Tree is a major invader in the Gulf Coast which aggressively displaces native plants. This research will focus on understanding the mechanisms that allow this species to establish in a broad range of Gulf Coast ecosystems (urban habitats, prairies, hardwood forests and floodplain forests), to out-compete and displace native vegetation, and to maintain self-replacing monocultures. Experiments will be replicated across major landscape types to examine: (1) the relationship between severity of alien plant invasion and lack of herbivores and diseases; (2) the importance of resource alterations in governing invasion severity; and (3) how local recruitment limitation affects alien plant invasion. Understanding the mechanisms of plant invasion is critically important to both society, with increasing economic and political impacts of alien species, and ecology because invasion plays a key role in community development and ecosystem function.