Corresponding author: Jonatan Rodríguez (
Academic editor: M. Vilà
Plant invasions impact on biodiversity by altering the composition of native communities by disrupting taxonomic and functional diversity. Non-native plants are often released from their natural enemies, which might result in a reduction of the attack of primary consumers. However, they can also be exposed to the attack of new herbivores that they might not be able to tolerate. Hence, invertebrate communities can be influenced by invasive non-native plants, which in turn modify interactions and change environmental conditions. In this study, we examined the compositional and trophic diversity of invertebrate species, comparing ecosystems with and without the plant species
Rodríguez J, Novoa A, Cordero-Rivera A, Richardson DM, González L (2020) Biogeographical comparison of terrestrial invertebrates and trophic feeding guilds in the native and invasive ranges of
Drivers of change such as globalization, habitat fragmentation, and climate change facilitate the arrival, establishment and proliferation of invasive non-native species (
Non-native plants are often released from their natural enemies (i.e. Enemy Release Hypothesis;
Plant invasions are a major concern in Europe (
We investigated the composition and trophic feeding guilds of invertebrate species by comparing coastal areas with and without
The study was carried out at ten locations, five of them within the native range of
We established two different sampling areas at each location: plant communities with and without
Schematic representation of the experimental design for assessing differences in terrestrial invertebrates and trophic feeding guilds in the native (South Africa) and invasive (Iberian Peninsula) ranges of
We estimated the invertebrate species richness between the coastal areas of South Africa and the Iberian Peninsula that differ in plant community (with and without
To evaluate the differences in the invertebrate community, we used Generalized Linear Mixed Models (
To examine beta-diversity differences, we used a multivariate test for homogeneity of dispersion analyses (PERMDISP) of differences in invertebrate composition among studied areas. We assessed the species turnover (replacement of one species by others among locations of the same plant community), nestedness (species richness gain or loss among locations where species lists vary across different plant communities) and total beta-diversity (
Lastly, the species composition was analysed using a non-metric multidimensional scaling (
A total of 13,785 invertebrate individuals were identified by visual spot-checks and yellow sticky traps; these were assigned to 90 families and 170 morphospecies (Suppl. material
Relative abundances of taxa (order) within each studied area. The abundance of each taxon was calculated as the percentage of sequences per location for a given invertebrate group. The group ‘Other taxa’ encompasses grouped orders with lower abundance.
Species accumulation curves and the estimated number of species in relation to the species observed indicated that the sampling effort was adequate to capture the majority of the species (Suppl. material
Sample-size-based rarefaction (solid line segment) sampling curves with 95% confidence intervals (shaded areas) for the invertebrate species richness of areas with and without
Number of collected invertebrate species (Sobs) and individuals as well as the estimated richness of species (calculated by Chao2, Jack 1, Jack 2 and bootstrap species estimators) from South Africa and Iberian Peninsula at locations that differ in plant community (with and without
Area | Sobs | Individuals | Chao2 (±SD) | Jack1 (±SD) | Jack2 | Bootstrap (±SD) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Overall (all combined) | 171 | 13785 | 210.86 (17.47) | 207.63 (7.35) | 227.40 | 187.87 (4.06) |
Overall South Africa | 104 | 8283 | 123.64 (11.32) | 124.58 (5.82) | 134.39 | 113.65 (3.29) |
|
89 | 4684 | 105.28 (9.34) | 109.16 (7.08) | 117.02 | 98.66 (3.95) |
No |
91 | 3599 | 110.53 (10.73) | 113.08 (6.20) | 122.78 | 101.26 (3.29) |
Overall Iberian Peninsula | 94 | 5502 | 124.11 (15.87) | 119.48 (6.06) | 134.09 | 105.30 (3.23) |
|
75 | 2283 | 100.13 (13.70) | 98.04 (6.86) | 110.42 | 85.32 (3.66) |
No |
72 | 3219 | 118.46 (29.51) | 93.12 (6.28) | 108.95 | 80.87 (3.26) |
Effect of the plant community (with and without
Results from the Generalized Linear Mixed Models (
Effect |
|
χ2 | Pr(>Chisq) |
---|---|---|---|
Abundance | |||
Region (R) | 1, 100 | 4.717 | |
Plant community (PC) | 1, 100 | 0.903 | 0.342 |
R × PC | 1, 100 | 377.912 | |
Species richness | |||
Region (R) | 1, 100 | 18.851 | |
Plant community (PC) | 1, 100 | 4.021 | |
R × PC | 1, 100 | 7.661 | |
Margalef index | |||
Region (R) | 1, 100 | 14.824 | |
Plant community (PC) | 1, 100 | 11.956 | |
R × PC | 1, 100 | 6.085 | |
Shannon index (H’) | |||
Region (R) | 1, 100 | 15.014 | |
Plant community (PC) | 1, 100 | 13.294 | |
R × PC | 1, 100 | 5.587 | |
Simpson index (D) | |||
Region (R) | 1, 100 | 7.618 | |
Plant community (PC) | 1, 100 | 18.651 | |
R × PC | 1, 100 | 17.924 | |
Pielou evenness (J) | |||
Region (R) | 1, 100 | 3.959 | |
Plant community (PC) | 1, 100 | 13.053 | |
R × PC | 1, 100 | 32.060 |
PERMDISP analyses revealed no dissimilarity for species turnover, nestedness and total beta-diversity, indicating that beta-diversities are very similar among areas with and without
Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling based on a Bray–Curtis matrix of dissimilarities in
Results from the multivariate permutational analysis (
|
|
SS | MS |
|
|
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(A) South Africa | ||||||
Plant community (PC) | 1 | 0.095 | 0.095 | 0.767 | 0.014 | 0.413 |
Distance to the sea (DS) | 1 | 0.388 | 0.388 | 3.121 | 0.056 | |
Vegetation cover (VC) | 1 | 0.227 | 0.227 | 1.824 | 0.032 | 0.403 |
PC × DS | 1 | 0.418 | 0.418 | 3.365 | 0.060 | |
PC × VC | 1 | 0.140 | 0.140 | 1.124 | 0.020 | 0.446 |
DS × VC | 1 | 0.254 | 0.254 | 2.040 | 0.036 | 0.131 |
PC × DS × VC | 1 | 0.198 | 0.198 | 1.593 | 0.028 | 0.190 |
Residuals | 42 | 5.224 | 0.114 | 0.752 | ||
Total | 49 | 6.945 | 1.000 | |||
(B) Iberian Peninsula | ||||||
Plant community (PC) | 1 | 0.300 | 0.2997 | 1.744 | 0.031 | |
Distance to the sea (DS) | 1 | 0.248 | 0.2485 | 1.445 | 0.026 | |
Vegetation cover (VC) | 1 | 0.284 | 0.2843 | 1.654 | 0.030 | 0.336 |
PC × DS | 1 | 0.758 | 0.7577 | 4.408 | 0.080 | |
PC × VC | 1 | 0.109 | 0.1096 | 0.638 | 0.011 | 0.864 |
DS × VC | 1 | 0.249 | 0.2491 | 1.449 | 0.026 | 0.343 |
PC × DS × VC | 1 | 0.338 | 0.3386 | 1.970 | 0.035 | |
Residuals | 42 | 7.219 | 0.1792 | 0.759 | ||
Total | 49 | 9.507 | 1.000 |
Within taxonomic groupings, results revealed a significantly higher abundance of almost all groups in areas with and without
The Cape Floristic Region of South Africa is recognised as a global biodiversity hotspot (
Biodiversity is not always reduced following invasion of non-native plants. Invasive plants can induce the replacement of the native biota by species with similar characteristics (
Plant invasions frequently alter the structure of native communities by disrupting their trophic interactions and changing the ecological processes of the invaded areas, which often creates new environmental scenarios (
We expected a higher diversity of trophic groups in well-preserved areas in the native range of
At the taxonomic level, our results show differences mainly between regions, but also the invasive
Ecosystem processes and species functional diversity at a local scale can be influenced by the invasion of non-native plants (
Overall, coastal areas in South Africa are more diverse and had a greater abundance of invertebrates compared to the Iberian Peninsula. Invertebrate species composition was affected by
Theoretical diagram describing the main results obtained comparing ecosystems with and without the plant species
This work was funded by Xunta de Galicia, Spain (CITACA Strategic Partnership, Reference: ED431E 2018/07) and carried out within the framework of the project “Retos en la gestión de la planta invasora
Biogeographical comparison of terrestrial invertebrates and trophic feeding guilds in the native and invasive ranges of
Studied areas, characteristics, occurrences, tables, images