INVESTIGADORES
MORALES Carolina Laura
artículos
Título:
A meta-analysis of impacts of alien vs. native plants on pollinator visitation and reproductive success of co-flowering native plants
Autor/es:
MORALES CAROLINA LAURA; TRAVESET ANNA
Revista:
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Editorial:
WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC
Referencias:
Año: 2009 vol. 12 p. 716 - 728
ISSN:
1461-023X
Resumen:
Alien plant species can alter pollinator visitation and, in turn, the sexual reproduction of
natives. Using a conventional and a phylogenetically controlled meta-analytical approach
on a data set of 40 studies, we evaluated the effect of alien neighbour plant species
(aliens) on visitation to and reproduction of native co-flowering focal species (focals),
and compared such effect to that of native neighbours (natives). An overall significantly
negative effect of aliens on visitation to and reproduction of focals was confirmed.
Interestingly, aliens differed from natives in their effect on visitation, but not on
reproductive success. The negative effect of aliens on visitation and reproductive success
increased at high relative alien plant abundance, but this increase was proportionally
lower than the increase in relative plant abundance. Likewise, effect of aliens on
visitation and reproductive success was most detrimental when alien and focal species
had similar flower symmetry or colour. The phylogenetic relatedness between alien
neighbours and focals influenced the reproductive success effect size. Results of the
phylogenetic meta-analysis were only partly consistent with those of the conventional
meta-analysis, depending on the response variable and on whether we controlled for the
phylogeny of neighbour or focal species, which calls for special attention to control for
species relatedness in this type of review. This study demonstrates the predominant
detrimental impact of alien plants on pollination and reproduction of natives, and
highlights the importance of phenotypic similarity to the outcome of the interaction.