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Communities and Invasibility
Biology 255
B. Wheeler
9/16/2004
In a meta-analysis of experiments on plant invasion, Levine et al (2004) argue for “biotic containment”
rather than the more traditional paradigm of biotic resistance in communities. They examine
competitors, diversity, herbivores and soil fungi, determining that all but soil fungal communities
significantly decrease the success of invaders. This supports suppression of invaders after
establishment rather than the biotic resistance to establishment. Meiners et al (2004) examines the
relationship between diversity and invasion of communities, finding that richness was often positively
correlated with diversity (or in some cases there was a unimodal response curve). The patterns of
invasion held for both native and exotic species. This result differs from experimental studies of
invasion which typically support a negative relationship with invasion decreasing in communities with
higher species richness.
Levine, J. M., Adler, P. B. and Yelenik, S. G. A meta-analysis of biotic resistance to exotic plant invasions. Ecology Letters
7[10], 975-989. 2004.
Meiners, S. J., Cadenasso, M. L. and Pickett, S. T. A. Beyond biodiversity: individualistic controls of invasion in a selfassembled community. Ecology Letters 7[2], 121-126. 2004.
Articles of Interest:
Brown, R. L. and Peet, R. K. 2003. Diversity and Invasibility of Southern Appalachian Plant Communities. - Ecology 84:
32-39.
Callaway, R. M., Thelen, G. C., Rodriguez, A. and Holben, W. E. 2004. Soil Biota and Exotic Plant Invasion. - Nature 427:
731-733.
Espinosa-Garcia, F. J., Villasenor, J. L. and Vibrans, H. 2004. The rich generally get richer, but there are exceptions:
Correlations between species richness of native plant species and alien weeds in Mexico. - Diversity and Distributions 10:
399-407.
Fargione, J., Brown, C. S. and Tilman, D. 2003. Community Assembly and Invasion: an Experimental Test of Neutral
Versus Niche Processes. - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100: 89168920.
Kennedy, T. A., Naeem, S., Howe, K. M., Knops, J. M. H., Tilman, D. and Reich, P. 2002. Biodiversity as a Barrier to
Ecological Invasion. - Nature 417: 636-638.
Maron, J. L. and Vila, M. 2001. When Do Herbivores Affect Plant Invasion? Evidence for the Natural Enemies and Biotic
Resistance Hypotheses. - Oikos 95: 361-373.
Moore, J. L., Mouquet, N., Lawton, J. H. and Loreau, M. 2001. Coexistence, Saturation and Invasion Resistance in
Simulated Plant Assemblages. - Oikos 94: 303-314.
Smith, M. D., Wilcox, J. C., Kelly, T. and Knapp, A. K. 2004. Dominance Not Richness Determines Invasibility of
Tallgrass Prairie. - Oikos 106: 253-262.
Tilman, D. 2004. Niche Tradeoffs, Neutrality, and Community Structure: a Stochastic Theory of Resource Competition,
Invasion, and Community Assembly. - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
101: 10854-10861.
Vila, M. and Weiner, J. 2004. Are Invasive Plant Species Better Competitors Than Native Plant Species? Evidence From
Pair-Wise Experiments. - Oikos 105: 229-238.
Von Holle, B. and Simberloff, D. 2004. Testing Fox's Assembly Rule: Does Plant Invasion Depend on Recipient
Community Structure? - Oikos 105: 551-563.
Wiser, S. K., Allen, R. B., Clinton, P. W. and Platt, K. H. 1998. Community Structure and Forest Invasion by an Exotic
Herb Over 23 Years. - Ecology 79: 2071-2081.