Rodent seed predation as a biotic filter influencing exotic plant abundance and distribution

Biotic resistance is commonly invoked to explain why many exotic plants fail to thrive in introduced ranges, but the role of seed predation as an invasion filter is understudied. Abiotic conditions may also influence plant populations and can interact with consumers to determine plant distributions,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Biological invasions Vol. 16; no. 5; pp. 1185 - 1196
Main Authors:	Pearson, D. E., Hierro, J. L., Chiuffo, M., Villarreal, D.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Cham Springer International Publishing 01-05-2014 Springer Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Biological and medical sciences Biomedical and Life Sciences Developmental Biology Drought Ecology Flowers & plants Freshwater & Marine Ecology Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Habitats Introduced plants Introduced species Invasions Life Sciences Mammalia Original Paper Plant populations Plant Sciences Predation Predators Road construction Roadsides Rodents Seedlings Seeds Vegetation surveys Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution Water availability Argentina Water addition Plant recruitment Seed predation Biotic resistance Road disturbance Water Seeds Rodentia Highway Abundance Perturbation Vertebrata Mammalia Sensitivity resistance Population recruitment Predation Plant introduction
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Summary:	Biotic resistance is commonly invoked to explain why many exotic plants fail to thrive in introduced ranges, but the role of seed predation as an invasion filter is understudied. Abiotic conditions may also influence plant populations and can interact with consumers to determine plant distributions, but how these factors jointly influence invasions is poorly understood. In central Argentina’s Caldenal savannas, we experimentally examined how seed predation and water availability influenced recruitment/establishment of nine exotic plant invaders over 2 years. We then explored how seed predation patterns related to invasion patterns. Excluding rodent seed predators dramatically increased seedling recruitment for eight of nine exotic species (by 100–300 % in most cases) and increased young/adult plant abundance for four species in one or both years. Adding water to ameliorate drought tended to increase seedling numbers for most species, but these trends were not significant. Vegetation surveys revealed that exotic plant richness was 50 % lower in matrix habitat compared with disturbed roadsides and that cover of the two most aggressive invaders, which were both strongly suppressed by seed predation, was 75–80 % lower in matrix than roadside habitats. Seed offerings indicated seed removal by rodents was 11 times greater in intact matrix habitat compared with roadsides. Rodent seed predation represents a significant source of biotic resistance to plant invasions. Ubiquitous disturbances such as road construction can disrupt this filter. The widely recognized role that disturbance plays in facilitating invasions, which is largely attributed solely to reduced plant competition, may also arise from disruption of top–down controls.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1387-3547 1573-1464
DOI:	10.1007/s10530-013-0573-1