Time course of plant diversity effects on Centaurea jacea establishment and the role of competition and herbivory

Norma Nitschke, Anne Ebeling, Tanja Rottstock, Christoph Scherber, Cornelius Middelhoff, Sylvia Creutzburg, Alexandra Weigelt, Teja Tscharntke, Markus Fischer, Wolfgang W. Weisser
2010 Journal of Plant Ecology  
Aims Invasion resistance in experimental plant communities is known to increase with increasing diversity and further to depend on the presence of particular functional groups. To test whether these effects also hold true for the invader establishment phase beyond the seedling stage, we studied survival and performance of Centaurea jacea L. (brown knapweed) planted into experimental grassland communities of varying plant biodiversity over three consecutive years. Moreover, we analysed the role
more » ... f insect herbivory and biomass of the recipient community for mediating diversity effects.
doi:10.1093/jpe/rtp036 fatcat:qmzbswkfazgc7hmgtg6wmk3tau