Abstract
Common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) is an abundant weed in its native North America, despite supporting a wide range of natural enemies. Here, we tested whether these enemies have significant impacts on the performance of this plant in its native range. We excluded enemies from the three principal life-history stages (seed, seedling, and adult) of this annual in a series of field experiments; at the adult stage, we also manipulated soil disturbance and conspecific density. We then measured the consequences of these treatments for growth, survival, and reproduction. Excluding fungi and vertebrate granivores from seeds on the soil surface did not increase germination relative to control plots. Seedling survivorship was only slightly increased by the exclusion of molluscs and other herbivores. Insecticide reduced damage to leaves of adult plants, but did not improve growth or reproduction. Growth and survivorship of adults were strongly increased by disturbance, while higher conspecific density reduced performance in disturbed plots. These results indicate ragweed is insensitive to attack by many of its natural enemies, helping to explain its native-range success. In addition, they suggest that even though ragweed lost most of its insect folivores while invading Europe, escape from these enemies is unlikely to have provided a significant demographic advantage; instead, disturbance is likely to have been a much more important factor in its invasion. Escape from enemies should not be assumed to explain the success of exotic species unless improved performance also can be demonstrated; native-range studies can help achieve this goal.
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Acknowledgments
M. Saunders, K.A. Judge, L.J. Robson, M. Lerdau, and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments. A. Simonsen, R. Dinnage, Z. Burivalova, R. MacKenzie, A.M. Petersen, V. Pham and especially K. Kostyukova for helpful field work. J. Stinchcombe and S.C.H. Barrett for advice, Art Weis and KSR for logistical support. This work would have been impossible without the donation of Koffler Scientific Reserve to the University of Toronto by the Koffler family. This work was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada PGS to A.A.M.M. and a Discovery Grant to P.M.K. These experiments comply with all local laws.
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Communicated by Manuel Lerdau.
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MacDonald, A.A.M., Kotanen, P.M. The effects of disturbance and enemy exclusion on performance of an invasive species, common ragweed, in its native range. Oecologia 162, 977–986 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1557-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1557-9