When invaders collude: diverse invasive plants intensify allelopathy through positive net diversity effects

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ID: 322898
2026
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Abstract
Abstract Allelopathy is a key mechanism by which invasive plants suppress native species to gain competitive advantage. However, most studies have focused on the allelopathic effects of individual invasive species, while paying little attention to how allelochemicals from multiple invaders jointly affect native plants under multi-species invasion scenarios that commonly occur in both natural and urban ecosystems. The invasional meltdown hypothesis predicts that co-occurring invaders can intensify suppression of natives, but mechanistic studies—especially from a multi-invader allelopathy perspective—are scarce. We selected five invasive plant species widely distributed in temperate and subtropical China and three native species coexisting with them. Aqueous leachates were prepared from invasive plants, and treatments were established with five source-species diversity levels and three concentration levels. We measured seed germination and seedling growth of each native species under different leachate treatments. Our results show that single-species leachates generally inhibited native growth, although some species exhibited highdose inhibition but lowdose stimulation (hormesis). In multi-species treatments, allelopathic suppression at high leachate concentrations increased significantly with source-species diversity, whereas at low concentrations, mixtures of leachates from either two species or multiple species enhanced both seedling height and fresh weight. Invasive plant diversity strengthened allelopathic suppression likely through complementarity effects rather than selection effects. High invasive plant diversity also amplified the hormesis of mixed allelochemicals on native species. By integrating the novel weapons hypothesis with the invasional meltdown hypothesis, this study provides new mechanistic explanations and experimental evidence for synergistic interactions in multi-species invasions, offering insights for managing ecosystems invaded by multiple species.
Reference Key
openalex_W7171632058 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Baisheng Ren, Mingyan Li, Zhenwei Xu, Yi Hu, Qiang Wang, Zhihang Sun, Yu Liang, Yijin Wang, Tianji Zhang, Dasheng Liu, Guo Shaoxia, Xiao Guo
Journal journal of plant ecology
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/jpe/rtag175
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/jpe/rtag175
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