Wang Yingjie, Zhang Shuang, Duan Xingwu, Ma Keming
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China.
Institute of International Rivers and Eco-Security Yunnan University Kunming China.
Ecol Evol. 2025 Aug 8;15(8):e71947. doi: 10.1002/ece3.71947. eCollection 2025 Aug.
A large number of non-native species have been introduced to urban ecosystems, and it is a distinctive feature of the urbanization process. However, it is unclear whether these non-native species have similar functional traits to native ones and are similarly integrated into the local food web. We evaluated the differences in leaf functional traits and herbivory between native and non-native species of common woody plants in 50 parks in Beijing, China. The nutrient contents, defensive traits, and levels of herbivory were measured in 2681 leaves across 138 (52 native and 86 non-native species) woody plant species. Results show that compared to native species, non-native trees showed greater potential for short-term carbon sequestration, lower nutrient contents, and chemical defense but similar levels of herbivory. Non-native shrubs had lower carbon contents and herbivory levels than native shrubs. Phylogenetic history explained much more of the variance in plant traits and herbivory than spatial variation, suggesting the high homogeneity of environments among different urban parks. Furthermore, the variation in leaf traits and herbivory of non-native species had higher uncertainty than that of native species. Our research findings indicate that compared to native species in urban ecosystems, non-native species have reduced plant-herbivore energy flow to primary consumers, which may hinder biodiversity at higher nutrient levels. In the future, urban parks should incorporate more native plant species and enhance environmental heterogeneity.
大量非本地物种已被引入城市生态系统，这是城市化进程的一个显著特征。然而，尚不清楚这些非本地物种是否具有与本地物种相似的功能性状，以及是否同样融入了当地的食物网。我们评估了中国北京50个公园中常见木本植物本地物种和非本地物种之间叶片功能性状和食草作用的差异。对138种（52种本地物种和86种非本地物种）木本植物的2681片叶子的养分含量、防御性状和食草水平进行了测量。结果表明，与本地物种相比，非本地树木具有更大的短期碳固存潜力、更低的养分含量和化学防御能力，但食草水平相似。非本地灌木的碳含量和食草水平低于本地灌木。系统发育历史比空间变异解释了更多植物性状和食草作用的方差，这表明不同城市公园之间环境的高度同质性。此外，非本地物种叶片性状和食草作用的变异比本地物种具有更高的不确定性。我们的研究结果表明，与城市生态系统中的本地物种相比，非本地物种减少了植物-食草动物向初级消费者的能量流动，这可能会阻碍更高营养级的生物多样性。未来，城市公园应纳入更多本地植物物种，并增强环境异质性。
