PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 128: Invasive Species: Genetics; Speciation
Thursday, August 11, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Meeting Room 513 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Character states associated with the success of invasive species in the Commelinaceae.

Burns, Jean^*,1, Miller, Thomas^*,1, ¹ Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA

ABSTRACT- Studies of the character states associated with invasiveness have generally either confounded species characteristics with phylogenetic relationships or have compared a single invader with a related native. This study examined character states associated with multiple invasive species in the Commelinaceae while controlling for shared evolutionary history. It also compared invasive species to non-invasive species, rather than to native species, which may become invasive elsewhere. Paired comparisons between 5 pairs of invasive and non-invasive congeners were conducted in a greenhouse across a factorial water and nutrient experiment. Invasive Commelinaceae species had greater average final biomass than their non-invasive congeners and differed from them in several traits, including specific leaf area, total seed number, and mean seed weight. Thus these traits may prove useful in predicting invasive ability in the Commelinaceae. However, trait differences between invasive and non-invasive species were environment-dependent, suggesting that care should be taken in generalizing about the traits of invasive species without taking into account the environmental conditions under which those traits were measured.

Key words: Invasive, Phylogeny, Comparative, RGR