HERBIVORY MORE LIMITING THAN COMPETITION ON EARLY AND ESTABLISHED NATIVE PLANTS IN AN INVADED MEADOW

摘要: The dominance of nonnative plants coupled with declines native suggests that competitive displacement drives extinctions, yet empirical examples are rare. Herbivores, however, can alter vegetation structure and reduce diversity when abundant. Herbivores may act on mature, reproductive life stages whereas some the strongest effects might occur at early difficult to observe. For example, competition by perennial grasses interfere establishment seeds. We contrasted ungulate herbivory neighboring performance plant species established in invaded oak meadows. recorded growth, survival, flowering two transplanted as plants, six grown from seed, five extant lily part 2 × factorial experiments manipulated competition. Herbivory reduced nearly ...