Plant species' origin predicts dominance and response to nutrient enrichment and herbivores in global grasslands.
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2015-07-15
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Exotic species dominate many communities; however the functional significance of species' biogeographic origin remains highly contentious. This debate is fuelled in part by the lack of globally replicated, systematic data assessing the relationship between species provenance, function and response to perturbations. We examined the abundance of native and exotic plant species at 64 grasslands in 13 countries, and at a subset of the sites we experimentally tested native and exotic species responses to two fundamental drivers of invasion, mineral nutrient supplies and vertebrate herbivory. Exotic species are six times more likely to dominate communities than native species. Furthermore, while experimental nutrient addition increases the cover and richness of exotic species, nutrients decrease native diversity and cover. Native and exotic species also differ in their response to vertebrate consumer exclusion. These results suggest that species origin has functional significance, and that eutrophication will lead to increased exotic dominance in grasslands.
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Seabloom, Eric W, Elizabeth T Borer, Yvonne M Buckley, Elsa E Cleland, Kendi F Davies, Jennifer Firn, W Stanley Harpole, Yann Hautier, et al. (2015). Plant species' origin predicts dominance and response to nutrient enrichment and herbivores in global grasslands. Nat Commun, 6. p. 7710. 10.1038/ncomms8710 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15614.
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Justin Prouty Wright
My research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of patterns of biological diversity across the planet. I am particularly interested in two broad questions: 1)How does the modification of the environment by organisms affect community structure and ecosystem function? and 2) what aspects of biodiversity matter most in the regulation of ecosystem function? While much of my research has focused on wetland plant communities, I am willing to study any organism and work in any ecosystem to answer the questions that interest me. I have worked in systems ranging from tropical streams to desert shrublands. My research program combines observational and experimental approaches with modeling to develop and test hypotheses and build towards synthetic ecological theory.
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