Publication
Invasive Rosa rugosa populations outperform native populations, but some populations have greater invasive potential than others
Publisher:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:
10-04-2018
DOI:
10.1038/S41598-018-23974-3
Abstract: Increased performance of invasive plant species in their introduced range vs. their native range has been previously documented. However, performance differences among invasive populations have rarely been explored, despite this information being central to understanding the evolution of invasiveness as well as being a useful basis to inform management of invasive species. To examine variation in performance among populations of Rosa rugosa in its introduced range, and whether introduced populations perform better than native populations, we quantified growth and reproductive traits in five invasive populations in northwest Europe and two native and declining populations in China. Overall, we found that the introduced R. rugosa populations we s led performed significantly better than the s led native populations for growth and reproductive traits (2 to 4 fold increase). However, there was significant variation for most traits among the five invasive populations, demonstrating that some introduced populations we s led were more successful invaders than others. Our findings provide a useful foundation for management of invasive R. rugosa in Europe, and support the recent call for more intra-species research in invasive species biology.