Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Nitrogen Acquisition By Annual And Perennial Grass Seedlings: Testing The Roles Of Performance And Plasticity To Explain Plant Invasion, A. J. Leffler, T. A. Monaco, J. J. James

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Differences in resource acquisition between native and exotic plants is one hypothesis to explain invasive plant success. Mechanisms include greater resource acquisition rates and greater plasticity in resource acquisition by invasive exotic species compared to non-invasive natives. We assess the support for these mechanisms by comparing nitrate acquisition and growth of invasive annual and perennial grass seedlings in western North America. Two invasive exotic grasses (Bromus tectorum and Taeniatherum caput-medusae) and three perennial native and exotic grasses (Pseudoroegneria spicata, Elymus elymoides, and Agropyron cristatum) were grown at various temperatures typical of autumn and springtime when resource are abundant and dominance …