TY - JOUR

T1 - Contrasting responses of plant, soil fungal and above-ground arthropod communities to plant invasion across latitudes

AU - Gao, Lunlun

AU - Fan, Fengyan

AU - He, Yifan

AU - Wei, Chunqiang

AU - Xu, Hao

AU - Liu, Xiaoyan

AU - Lu, Xinmin

AU - Bardgett, Richard D.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Ecology © 2024 British Ecological Society.

PY - 2024/10/31

Y1 - 2024/10/31

N2 - The proliferation of alien species that can suppress resident species via biotic interactions represents a growing concern worldwide. Yet, how above- and below-ground communities simultaneously respond to plant invasion, particularly across large spatial scales, remains poorly explored. We hypothesized plant invasion has a greater impact on recipient above- and below-ground communities at lower than higher latitudes given that biotic interactions play a more significant role in shaping communities in more favourable, lower latitude environments. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a comprehensive field survey of 124 sites spanning a 1700-km latitudinal gradient in China, to explore the effects of invasion of Alternanthera philoxeroides, a globally widespread invasive plant, on plant, soil fungal and above-ground arthropod communities. Invasion of A. philoxeroides had divergent effects on beta diversity (i.e. variation in taxa composition among sites) of plants, above-ground arthropods and soil saprotrophic fungi, with negative, neutral and positive responses, respectively. Notably, the compositional dissimilarity of plant and arthropod communities between adjacent invaded and non-invaded sites remained constant across latitudes. In contrast, the compositional dissimilarity of the entire and pathogenic fungal communities between adjacent invaded and non-invaded sites increased with latitude. This resulted in a decreasing difference in invasion effects on the composition of plant and fungal communities with increasing latitude. Synthesis. Our study provides novel insights into the complexities of invasion effects by revealing contrasting responses of above- and below-ground communities to plant invasion across latitudes. The contrasting responses could weaken or reshape above- and below-ground interactions, and, in turn, affect future species invasions and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.

AB - The proliferation of alien species that can suppress resident species via biotic interactions represents a growing concern worldwide. Yet, how above- and below-ground communities simultaneously respond to plant invasion, particularly across large spatial scales, remains poorly explored. We hypothesized plant invasion has a greater impact on recipient above- and below-ground communities at lower than higher latitudes given that biotic interactions play a more significant role in shaping communities in more favourable, lower latitude environments. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a comprehensive field survey of 124 sites spanning a 1700-km latitudinal gradient in China, to explore the effects of invasion of Alternanthera philoxeroides, a globally widespread invasive plant, on plant, soil fungal and above-ground arthropod communities. Invasion of A. philoxeroides had divergent effects on beta diversity (i.e. variation in taxa composition among sites) of plants, above-ground arthropods and soil saprotrophic fungi, with negative, neutral and positive responses, respectively. Notably, the compositional dissimilarity of plant and arthropod communities between adjacent invaded and non-invaded sites remained constant across latitudes. In contrast, the compositional dissimilarity of the entire and pathogenic fungal communities between adjacent invaded and non-invaded sites increased with latitude. This resulted in a decreasing difference in invasion effects on the composition of plant and fungal communities with increasing latitude. Synthesis. Our study provides novel insights into the complexities of invasion effects by revealing contrasting responses of above- and below-ground communities to plant invasion across latitudes. The contrasting responses could weaken or reshape above- and below-ground interactions, and, in turn, affect future species invasions and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.

KW - above- and below-ground communities

KW - alligator weed

KW - Alternanthera philoxeroides

KW - beta diversity

KW - China

KW - invasion ecology

KW - invasive plant

KW - latitude

KW - plants

KW - soil fungi

U2 - 10.1111/1365-2745.14398

DO - 10.1111/1365-2745.14398

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85202022288

VL - 112

SP - 2333

EP - 2343

JO - Journal of Ecology

JF - Journal of Ecology

SN - 0022-0477

IS - 10

ER -