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No consistent pollinator-mediated impacts of alien plants on natives
Julia A Charlebois1, Risa D Sargent1
1Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Ecology Letters
|September 14, 2017
Summary
Alien plants do not necessarily harm native plant reproduction via pollinators. Study design, not alien status, better predicts impacts, suggesting community-wide assessments for management.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Conservation Biology
- Plant Science
Background:
- Alien plant introductions are often assumed to negatively impact native plant fitness through pollinator interactions.
- Previous research and meta-analyses suggest a competitive trend between alien and native plants mediated by pollinators.
Purpose of the Study:
- To re-evaluate the pollinator-mediated impacts of alien plants by accounting for publication bias and study design.
- To determine if alien/native status, floral trait similarity, or phylogenetic distance predict interaction outcomes.
- To identify factors that influence the impact of neighboring plants on pollinator-mediated interactions.
Main Methods:
- Conducted a meta-analysis of 76 studies examining plant-pollinator interactions.
- Analyzed data to assess the predictive power of alien/native status, floral traits, and phylogenetic distance on interaction outcomes.
- Investigated the influence of study design elements (e.g., neighbor distance, plant arrangement) on observed impacts.
Main Results:
- Alien/native status did not predict the outcome of pollinator-mediated interactions.
- No evidence found that floral trait similarity or phylogenetic distance influenced interaction outcomes.
- Study design factors, such as the distance to the nearest neighbor and plant arrangement, were better predictors of impact than alien/native status.
Conclusions:
- Publication bias and study design have obscured the assessment of alien plant impacts on native pollinators.
- Generalizable pollinator-mediated impacts of alien species are not evident.
- Management decisions should prioritize community-wide assessments of individual alien species rather than relying solely on alien/native status.
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