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Polyploidy and invasion success: trait trade-offs in native and introduced cytotypes of two Asteraceae species

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Abstract

Invasion success is favoured by the introduction of pre-adapted genotypes. In addition, novel pressures in the introduced range may lead to phenotypic changes related to fitness or competitive ability of introduced plants. Polyploidy appears to be over-represented in invasive plants, but differences between cytotypes in growth strategies including trade-offs among plant traits have received little attention so far in the context of biological invasions. We grew Centaurea stoebe L. and Senecio inaequidens D.C. in a greenhouse experiment to test for differences in fitness (shoot biomass, reproductive output) and competitive ability (vegetative size, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, root–shoot ratio) between diploid and polyploid cytotypes as well as between native and introduced plants. For both species, diploid and tetraploid genotypes occur in the native range, whereas only tetraploids are present in the introduced range. In the native range of both species, diploid and tetraploid genotypes had different growth strategies. Tetraploid genotypes of C. stoebe and S. inaequidens had, respectively, higher specific leaf area and stem height than diploid ones. Thus, for both species, native tetraploids appeared more competitive than native diploids, which could explain, at least partially, the invasion success of the pre-adapted tetraploid genotypes. The comparison of native and introduced tetraploid genotypes revealed differences in traits linked to competitive ability, which could be linked to novel selection in the new environment. In S. inaequidens, we found evidence for a competition-colonisation trade-off, whereas persistence of C. stoebe in the new range seemed to be linked to a competition-defence trade-off.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Plant Survival, research programme of the Swiss National Science Foundation. We thank Joanne Félix, Elena Rossel and Damien Pasche for technical assistance. We are grateful to Olivier Broennimann, Signe Normand and Urs Treier for collecting seeds of Centaurea stoebe, and to Daniel Prati and Isabelle Olivieri for providing seeds of Senecio inaequidens. We also thank the University of Lausanne for providing greenhouse facilities and material. This paper benefited from discussions and comments by Sandra Lavorel, Séverine Vuilleumier and Pierre Liancourt. The authors are grateful to two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved the manuscript. This experiment complied with the Swiss regulation for invasive plant experimentations, as stated by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Laboratory of Ecological Systems, Station 2, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Aurélie Thébault, François Gillet & Alexandre Buttler

  2. Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Group Restoration Ecology, co EPFL, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Aurélie Thébault & Alexandre Buttler

  3. Université de Franche-Comté, CNRS, UMR 6249 Chrono-Environnement, 16 route de Gray, 25030, Besançon cedex, France

    François Gillet & Alexandre Buttler

  4. Unit of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 10, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Heinz Müller-Schärer

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  1. Aurélie Thébault
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Correspondence to Aurélie Thébault.

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Thébault, A., Gillet, F., Müller-Schärer, H. et al. Polyploidy and invasion success: trait trade-offs in native and introduced cytotypes of two Asteraceae species. Plant Ecol 212, 315–325 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9824-8

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