Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Publication Date
10-2004
Volume
2
Issue
8
Disciplines
Biology | Life Sciences
Abstract
When introduced to new habitats by humans, some plant species become much more dominant. This is primarily attributed to escape from specialist consumers. Release from these specialist enemies is also thought by some to lead to the evolution of increased competitive ability, driven by a decrease in the plant's resource allocation to consumer defense and an increase in allocation to size or fecundity. Here, we discuss a new theory for invasive success – the “novel weapons hypothesis”. We propose that some invaders transform because they possess novel biochemical weapons that function as unusually powerful allelopathic agents, or as mediators of new plant–soil microbial interactions. Root exudates that are relatively ineffective against their natural neighbors because of adaptation, may be highly inhibitory to newly encountered plants in invaded communities. In other words, the novel weapons of some plant invaders provide them with an advantage that may arise from differences in the regional coevolutionary trajectories of plant communities. Furthermore, the selective advantage of possessing a novel weapon may result in rapid evolution of that weapon – for example, the production of greater quantities of allelopathic or antimicrobial root exudates. Direct selection of competitive traits provides an alternative to the “grow versus defend” trade-offs that underpin the theory of the evolution of increased competitive ability. Read More: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/1540-9295(2004)002%5B0436%3ANWISAT%5D2.0.CO%3B2
DOI
10.1890/1540-9295(2004)002[0436:NWISAT]2.0.CO;2
Rights
Copyright 2004 by the Ecological Society of America. Ragan M. Callaway and Wendy M. Ridenour 2004. Novel weapons: invasive success and the evolution of increased competitive ability. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2: 436–443. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/1540-9295(2004)002[0436:NWISAT]2.0.CO;2
Recommended Citation
Callaway, Ragan M. and Ridenour, Wendy M., "Novel Weapons: Invasive Success and the Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability" (2004). Biological Sciences Faculty Publications. 223.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/biosci_pubs/223
Comments
Copyright 2004 by the Ecological Society of America. Ragan M. Callaway and Wendy M. Ridenour 2004. Novel weapons: invasive success and the evolution of increased competitive ability. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2: 436–443. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/1540-9295(2004)002[0436:NWISAT]2.0.CO;2