| Abstract： |
Aim Many studies show that increase in ground-level ozone (O-3) has adverse effects on plant growth. Due to high phenotypic plasticity, invasive species is considered to be more adaptable to elevated O-3 than native species. This idea is only tested by the very limited studies comparing invasive weeds with crops. However, whether it holds remains unclear when comparing invasive species with their co-occurring native species in natural systems. Location China. Methods We performed an open-top chamber experiment growing six congeneric pairs of invasive and native species with and without competition under ambient (approximately 43 ppb) and elevated O-3 (approximately 89 ppb) concentrations to test whether the growth responses to elevated O-3 concentrations differ between invasive and native species. Results Our results revealed that elevated O-3 had a significant negative effect on both invasive and native species. In particular, elevated O-3 reduced the aboveground biomass and damaged the leaves of invasive species significantly more than those of native species. Main conclusions Our study indicates that elevated O-3 concentration has a stronger adverse effect on invasive species than on native species. Therefore, increasing O-3 pollution might suppress plant invasion, and thus invasive species might expand their distribution more easily to the area with lower O-3 pollution in the future. |
