scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Topic

Resistance (ecology)

About: Resistance (ecology) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1148 publications have been published within this topic receiving 47175 citations.


Papers
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jul 1999-Ecology
TL;DR: Lower levels of available limiting resources at higher diversity are predicted to decrease the susceptibility of an ecosystem to invasion, supporting the diversity-invasibility hypothesis.
Abstract: This paper uses theory and experiments to explore the effects of diversity on stability, productivity, and susceptibility to invasion. A model of resource competition predicts that increases in diversity cause com- munity stability to increase, but population stability to decrease. These opposite effects are, to a great extent, explained by how temporal variances in species abundances scale with mean abundance, and by the differential impact of this scaling on population vs. community stability. Community stability also depends on a negative covariance effect (competitive compensation) and on overyielding (ecosystem productivity increasing with diversity). A long-term study in Minnesota grasslands supports these predictions. Models of competition predict, and field experiments confirm, that greater plant diversity leads to greater primary productivity. This diversity-productivity relationship results both from the greater chance that a more productive species would be present at higher diversity (the sampling effect) and from the better ''coverage'' of habitat heterogeneity caused by the broader range of species traits in a more diverse community (the niche differentiation effect). Both effects cause more complete utilization of limiting resources at higher diversity, which increases resource retention, further increasing productivity. Finally, lower levels of available limiting resources at higher diversity are predicted to decrease the susceptibility of an ecosystem to invasion, supporting the diversity-invasibility hypothesis. This mechanism provides rules for community assembly and invasion resistance. In total, biodiversity should be added to species composition, disturbance, nutrient supply, and climate as a major controller of population and ecosystem dynamics and structure. By their increasingly great directional impacts on all of these controllers, humans are likely to cause major long-term changes in the functioning of ecosystems worldwide. A better understanding of these ecosystem changes is needed if ecologists are to provide society with the knowledge essential for wise management of the earth and its biological resources.

1,908 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A meta-analysis of the plant invasions literature concludes that ecological interactions rarely enable communities to resist invasion, but instead constrain the abundance of invasive species once they have successfully established.
Abstract: Biotic resistance describes the ability of resident species in a community to reduce the success of exotic invasions. Although resistance is a well-accepted phenomenon, less clear are the processes that contribute most to it, and whether those processes are strong enough to completely repel invaders. Current perceptions of strong, competition-driven biotic resistance stem from classic ecological theory, Elton’s formulation of ecological resistance, and the general acceptance of the enemies-release hypothesis. We conducted a meta-analysis of the plant invasions literature to quantify the contribution of resident competitors, diversity, herbivores and soil fungal communities to biotic resistance. Results indicated large negative effects of all factors except fungal communities on invader establishment and performance. Contrary to predictions derived from the natural enemies hypothesis, resident herbivores reduced invasion success as effectively as resident competitors. Although biotic resistance significantly reduced the establishment of individual invaders, we found little evidence that species interactions completely repelled invasions. We conclude that ecological interactions rarely enable communities to resist invasion, but instead constrain the abundance of invasive species once they have successfully established.

1,311 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
05 May 2000-Science
TL;DR: In a California riparian system, the most diverse natural assemblages are the most invaded by exotic plants and a direct in situ manipulation of local diversity and a seed addition experiment showed that these patterns emerge despite the intrinsic negative effects of diversity.
Abstract: In a California riparian system, the most diverse natural assemblages are the most invaded by exotic plants. A direct in situ manipulation of local diversity and a seed addition experiment showed that these patterns emerge despite the intrinsic negative effects of diversity on invasions. The results suggest that species loss at small scales may reduce invasion resistance. At community-wide scales, the overwhelming effects of ecological factors spatially covarying with diversity, such as propagule supply, make the most diverse communities most likely to be invaded.

1,027 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is found that many more studies have documented costs of resistance (sensu lato) than found during the 1996 survey and that eighty-two percent of studies in which genetic background is controlled, demonstrate significant fitness reductions associated with herbivore resistance.
Abstract: Herbivores can consume significant amounts of plant biomass in many environments. Yet plants are not defenseless against such attack. Although defenses might benefit plants in the presence of herbivores, herbivore attack varies both spatially and temporally, and the expression of plant resistance to herbivores can be costly in the absence of plant enemies. Costs can be described as allocation costs, resource-based tradeoffs between resistance and fitness, or as ecological costs, decreases in fitness resulting from interactions with other species. Here, we update the seminal 1996 Bergelson and Purrington review of resistance costs and find that many more studies have documented costs of resistance (sensu lato) than found during the 1996 survey. Eighty-two percent of studies in which genetic background is controlled, demonstrate significant fitness reductions associated with herbivore resistance. We categorize studies by type of resistance, induced or constitutive, by type of cost, and also by the degree to which investigators controlled for genetic background. Recent work has commonly detected both direct resistance costs, such as resource-based tradeoffs, and ecological costs, which depend on interactions with other species.

835 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 2001-Oikos
TL;DR: A review of the evidence for both the natural enemies hypothesis and the biotic resistance hypothesis reveals that: 1) introduced plants can attract a diverse assemblage of native herbivores and that 2) native Herbivores can reduce introduced plant growth, seed set and survival.
Abstract: Two venerable hypotheses, widely cited as explanations for either the success or failure of introduced species in recipient communities, are the natural enemies hypothesis and the biotic resistance hypothesis. The natural enemies hypothesis posits that introduced organisms spread rapidly because they are liberated from their co-evolved predators, pathogens and herbivores. The biotic resistance hypothesis asserts that introduced species often fail to invade communities because strong biotic interactions with native species hinder their establishment and spread. We reviewed the evidence for both of these hypotheses as they relate to the importance of non-domesticated herbivores in affecting the success or failure of plant invasion. To evaluate the natural enemies hypothesis, one must determine how commonly native herbivores have population-level impacts on native plants. If native herbivores seldom limit native plant abundance, then there is little reason to think that introduced plants benefit from escape from these enemies. Studies of native herbivore-native plant interactions reveal that plant life-history greatly mediates the strength with which specialist herbivores suppress plant abundance. Relatively short-lived plants that rely on current seed production for regeneration are most vulnerable to herbivory that reduces seed production. As such, these plants may gain the greatest advantage from escaping their specialist enemies in recipient communities. In contrast, native plants that are long lived or that possess long-lived seedbanks may not be kept “in check” by native herbivores. For these species, escape from native enemies may have little to do with their success as exotics; they are abundant both where they are native and introduced. Evidence for native herbivores providing biotic resistance to invasion by exotics is conflicting. Our review reveals that: 1) introduced plants can attract a diverse assemblage of native herbivores and that 2) native herbivores can reduce introduced plant growth, seed set and survival. However, the generality of these impacts is unclear, and evidence that herbivory actually limits or reduces introduced plant spread is scarce. The degree to which native herbivores provide biotic resistance to either exotic plant establishment or spread may be greatly determined by their functional and numerical responses to exotic plants, which we know little about. Generalist herbivores, through their direct effects on seed dispersal and their indirect effects in altering the outcome of native–non-native plant competitive interactions, may have more of a facilitative than negative effect on exotic plant abundance.

821 citations


Network Information
Related Topics (5)
Ecosystem
25.4K papers, 1.2M citations
79% related
Biodiversity
44.8K papers, 1.9M citations
78% related
Ecosystem services
28K papers, 997.1K citations
78% related
Species richness
61.6K papers, 2.1M citations
76% related
Species diversity
32.2K papers, 1.2M citations
75% related
Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20242
20233,536
20225,881
2021176
202096
201999