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Does Superior Competitive Ability Explain Yellow Starthistle's (Centaurea solstitialis) Successful Invasion of Annual Grasslands in California?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David Spencer ,
Stephen Enloe ,
Pul-Sze Liow ,
Greg Ksander  and
Raymond Carruthers
David Spencer*
Affiliation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Exotic and Invasive Weeds Research, Department of Plant Sciences, MS 4, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616
Stephen Enloe
Affiliation:
Department of Agronomy and Soils, 119 Extension Hall, Auburn University, Alabama 36849
Pul-Sze Liow
Affiliation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Exotic and Invasive Weeds Research, Department of Plant Sciences, MS 4, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616
Greg Ksander
Affiliation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Exotic and Invasive Weeds Research, Department of Plant Sciences, MS 4, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616
Raymond Carruthers
Affiliation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Exotic and Invasive Weeds Research Unit, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, CA 94710
*
Corresponding author's E-mail: david.spencer@ars.usda.gov or dfspencer@ucdavis.edu
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Abstract

Yellow starthistle represents one of the most spectacular examples of biological invasion in the western United States. However, the mechanisms leading to its success have not been clearly elucidated. Although its success has been attributed to superior competitive ability, few competition studies have been performed with yellow starthistle to test this assertion. Yellow starthistle and wild oat (a dominant component of California annual grasslands) were grown in monocultures and mixtures to assess the strength of competitive interactions between them. For either species, intraspecific competition exerted a greater influence over mean plant weight than did interspecific competition. A companion study revealed temporal separation in the phenology of these plants, explaining the weak role of interspecific competition. Additional measurements of growth and soil moisture dynamics in large 270-cm-tall by 50-cm-diam polyvinyl chloride columns also showed a lack of interspecific competition and confirmed that water use patterns differed between these species, indicating niche partitioning. Wild oat reduced soil moisture to 5% but only to a depth of approximately 150 cm. Yellow starthistle depleted soil moisture to less than 5% throughout the column to a depth of at least 270 cm. These patterns were present when wild oat and yellow starthistle were grown individually or together in the columns, indicating that yellow starthistle had a greater impact on soil moisture and to greater depths. Yellow starthistle's invasion of grasslands in California does not appear to be due to superior competitive ability, but may be due to its ability to access deeper soil moisture. These results support the empty niche hypothesis that implies that invasive species are successful in new habitats because they access resources not available to resident species.

Keywords

Yellow starthistleCentaurea solstitialis L. CENSOwild oatAvena fatua L.Competitionphenologyinvasion successempty niche hypothesis
Type
Research
Information
Invasive Plant Science and Management , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , September 2011 , pp. 284 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Weed Science Society of America 

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