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Germination of an invasive fern responds better than native ferns to water and light stress in a Mexican cloud forest

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Abstract

Some fern species are among the world’s worst weeds, but little is known about the establishment of alien ferns in relatively conserved ecosystems. Exotic species may outperform native ones during germination and facilitate invasion into new environments. Macrothelypteris torresiana is an Asian fern species that was introduced and spread throughout multiple areas of tropical America. We tested the hypothesis that germination of the exotic fern will be higher at high resource levels and will have wider ecological amplitude compared to native fern species in a cloud forest in central Mexico. Spore germination was evaluated through a gradient of water potential (0 to − 1.0 MPa), photon flux density (0 to 200 µmol m−2 s−1), and light quality (0 to 7.2 red:far-red ratio) in the laboratory, whereas plant relative frequency was determinate in the forest to describe the distribution of the ferns under the light environment. Comparing to three native ferns (sun-loving Hypolepis blepharochlaena and shade-loving Blechnum wardiae and Polystichum ordinatum), M. torresiana was more tolerant to water deficit, germinated better under low photon flux but responded similarly to light quality gradient, and occurred over a far wider range of field light conditions. Our results support the hypothesis that the germination requirements of the invasive fern species are less specific and thus facilitate the colonization of sites with diverse light conditions and water availability.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from S.G. and O.B. upon request.

Code availability

Custom R code are available from S.G. and O.B. upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Yareni Perroni and Rogelio Macías for allowing them to perform this study in their private reserve El Riscal. We acknowledge Claudio Mota Vargas (Instituto de Ecología, A.C.) for field and laboratory assistance. We are indebted to the reviewers for their constructive input regarding the manuscript. Fieldwork, undergraduate (to A.A.) and postdoctoral fellowships (to S.G.) were Granted by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT, Project 80090) awarded to O.B.

Funding

This work was funded with research funds from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) awarded to O.B. (Grant 80090).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Red de Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, A. C., Carretera Antigua a Coatepec 351, El Haya, 91000, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Salvador González de León & Oscar Briones

  2. Facultad de Biología, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán s/n, Zona Universitaria, 91090, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Alan Aguirre

  3. Red de Ecología Funcional, Instituto de Ecología, A. C., Carretera Antigua a Coatepec 351, El Haya, 91000, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Klaus Mehltreter

  4. Departamento de Biología, Área de Botánica Estructural y Sistemática Vegetal, C. B. S, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, A. P. 55-535, 09340, Mexico, DF, Mexico

    Blanca Pérez-García

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  1. Salvador González de León
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  2. Oscar Briones
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  3. Alan Aguirre
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  4. Klaus Mehltreter
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  5. Blanca Pérez-García
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Contributions

All authors contributed substantially to the conceptual design of this research. The processing of the collected material was carried out by Alan Aguirre, Oscar Briones and Salvador González de León. Data collection was performed by Alan Aguirre, Salvador González de León and Oscar Briones. Data analyses were performed by Salvador González de León. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Alan Aguirre, Salvador Gonzalez de León and Oscar Briones and critically revised by Klaus Mehltreter and Blanca Pérez-García. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Oscar Briones.

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González de León, S., Briones, O., Aguirre, A. et al. Germination of an invasive fern responds better than native ferns to water and light stress in a Mexican cloud forest. Biol Invasions 23, 3187–3199 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02570-z

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