Non-Native, Non-Naturalised Plants Suffer Less Herbivory Than Native Plants Across European Botanical Gardens
Ivison, Katy; van Kleunen, Mark; Speed, James David Mervyn; Vange, Vibekke; Pujara, Sonia; Boch, Steffen; Enters, Dirk; Groom, Quentin; Janovský, Zdeněk; Jeschke, Jonathan M.; Joshi, Jasmin; Kolb, Annette; Kollmann, Johannes; Koubek, Tomáš; Lemke, Tristan; Matthies, Diethart; Raabová, Jana; Tielbörger, Katja; Dawson, Wayne
Journal article, Peer reviewed
Published version
Date
2024Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- Institutt for naturhistorie [1281]
- Publikasjoner fra CRIStin - NTNU [40022]
Original version
Diversity and Distributions: A Journal of Conservation Biogeography. 2024, . 10.1111/ddi.13938Abstract
Aim
The enemy release hypothesis states that the invasion success of non-native species is partly due to their escape from natural enemies, e.g., herbivores. Large-scale studies of herbivory using multiple species across multiple sites are needed to test the generality of herbivory release in non-native plants.
Location
Europe.
Methods
We carried out leaf-herbivory surveys from 2007 to 2021 in 15 botanical gardens ranging in latitude from 47°N (Switzerland) to 63°N (Norway) to investigate how herbivory levels differed between (i) native and non-native species, and (ii) native and non-naturalised or naturalised species.
Results
Overall, we found that herbivory levels were lower on non-native than native species. In addition, we found that non-naturalised plants suffered less herbivory than natives and that naturalised plants showed similar levels of herbivory to native plants.
Main Conclusions
We find broad support for lower herbivory of non-native plant species compared to natives. However, the stronger reduction in herbivory for non-naturalised plants suggests that herbivore release may be transient and less pronounced for naturalised non-native species that have become abundant and integrated into resident communities. This has implications for the management of naturalised non-native plants, which are performing well in their non-native ranges despite suffering comparable herbivory levels to native species.