Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.
Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, People's Republic of China.
Proc Biol Sci. 2023 Aug 30;290(2005):20231022. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1022. Epub 2023 Aug 16.
When a plant is introduced to a new ecosystem it may escape from some of its coevolved herbivores. Reduced herbivore damage, and the ability of introduced plants to allocate resources from defence to growth and reproduction can increase the success of introduced species. This mechanism is known as enemy release and is known to occur in some species and situations, but not in others. Understanding the conditions under which enemy release is most likely to occur is important, as this will help us to identify which species and habitats may be most at risk of invasion. We compared measurements of herbivory on 16 plant species at 12 locations within their native European and introduced Australian ranges to quantify their level of enemy release and understand the relationship between enemy release and time, space and climate. Overall, plants experienced approximately seven times more herbivore damage in their native range than in their introduced range. We found no evidence that enemy release was related to time since introduction, introduced range size, temperature, precipitation, humidity or elevation. From here, we can explore whether traits, such as leaf defences or phylogenetic relatedness to neighbouring plants, are stronger indicators of enemy release across species.
当一种植物被引入到一个新的生态系统中时，它可能会逃脱一些与其共同进化的食草动物的侵害。减少食草动物的破坏，以及引入植物将资源从防御分配到生长和繁殖的能力，可以增加引入物种的成功率。这种机制被称为天敌释放，已知在某些物种和情况下会发生，但在其他情况下不会发生。了解天敌释放最可能发生的条件很重要，因为这将有助于我们确定哪些物种和栖息地最容易受到入侵的威胁。我们比较了 16 种植物在其欧洲原生和澳大利亚引入范围的 12 个地点的 16 个地点的食草动物测量值，以量化它们的天敌释放程度，并了解天敌释放与时间、空间和气候之间的关系。总的来说，植物在其原生范围内遭受的食草动物破坏大约是其引入范围内的七倍。我们没有发现天敌释放与引入时间、引入范围大小、温度、降水、湿度或海拔有关的证据。从这里，我们可以探索诸如叶片防御或与邻近植物的系统发育关系等特征是否是跨物种天敌释放的更强指标。
