Being popular or freak: how alien plants integrate into native plant-frugivore networks

ROJAS, TOBIAS NICOLAS; GALLO, MARÍA CECILIA FÁTIMA; VERGARA-TABARES, DAVID LAUTARO; NAZARO, MARÍA GABRIELA; ZAMPINI, IRIS CATIANA; ISLA, MARÍA INÉS; BLENDINGER, PEDRO G.

BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2019

1387-3547

The generalist diet of most frugivores opens a window of opportunity to the invasion of alien plants whit fleshy-fruits. The outcome of the new relationships between alien plants and native frugivores depends both on traits of the invaders and of the mutualist partners in the recipient community. Two contrasting hypotheses attempt to explain the integration of alien species in native communities. ??Darwin?s naturalization hypothesis?? proposes that alien species more different from native species are more likely to integrate in the community. The ??similarity hypothesis?? proposes the opposite, that alien species more similar to native species are more likely to integratethe native community. By comparing chemical and morphological traits of 12 alien and 48 native fleshyfruited species, we tested both hypothesis as assemblyrules of alien species in subtropical Andean forests. We did not find differences in most chemical or morphological traits between alien and native fruit species. The multidimensional variation of alien fruit traits was nested within that of native species. However, alien fruits tended to score high in the range of variation of native chemical traits. Accordingly, we propose the ??fraction similarity hypothesis?? as a main force that drive the assembly of alien species in mutual istic networ ks, i.e. alien species benefit fromexisting mutual istic intera ctions that involve fruit species with traits selected by the frug ivores to invade native commun ities. Th e striking simi larity in fruit traits betwee n alien and native speci es highl ights thepotenti al role of seed dispersers as ecologi cal filters to the invasio n of alien plants. In turn , this simi larity sugges ts that alien fruit s can be function ally equivalent to native ones in ter ms of their interact ion withfruit-ea ting birds.