Cage Matching: Head to Head Competition Experiments of an Invasive Plant Species from Different Regions as a Means to Test for Differentiation

Lortie et al. 2009

Why are invasive successful?

Invasion Hypotheses• EICA – evolution of increased competitive ability

• Disturbance regimes

Ecotypic differentiation• How the population of a species adapts to a

particular set of environment conditions

Shade-tolerant plant Full-sun plants

Objective

Compare inter vs. intra regional competitive ability

Methods

Results

Results

For mixed plots

For mixed plots

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Novelty• Compares invasibility of the same species in two

different populations

• Focus on environmental drivers for plant invasion

• Couples biogeography with population ecology.

Future work?

Compare YST in the native range

Questions• What is ecotypic differentiation?

• How does ecotypic differentiation relate to competition?

• How was the Californian population more successful than the Argentinean population?

• What are some ways to experimental measure the response of competition in plants?