Being popular or freak: how alien plants integrate into native plant-frugivore networks

Abstract

The generalist diet of most frugivores opens a window of opportunity to the invasion of alien plants whit fleshy-fruits. The outcome of the new relationships between alien plants and native frugivores depends both on traits of the invaders and of the mutualist partners in the recipient community. Two contrasting hypotheses attempt to explain the integration of alien species in native communities. “Darwin’s naturalization hypothesis” proposes that alien species more different from native species are more likely to integrate in the community. The “similarity hypothesis” proposes the opposite, that alien species more similar to native species are more likely to integrate the native community. By comparing chemical and morphological traits of 12 alien and 48 native fleshy-fruited species, we tested both hypothesis as assembly rules of alien species in subtropical Andean forests. We did not find differences in most chemical or morphological traits between alien and native fruit species. The multidimensional variation of alien fruit traits was nested within that of native species. However, alien fruits tended to score high in the range of variation of native chemical traits. Accordingly, we propose the “fraction similarity hypothesis” as a main force that drive the assembly of alien species in mutualistic networks, i.e. alien species benefit from existing mutualistic interactions that involve fruit species with traits selected by the frugivores to invade native communities. The striking similarity in fruit traits between alien and native species highlights the potential role of seed dispersers as ecological filters to the invasion of alien plants. In turn, this similarity suggests that alien fruits can be functionally equivalent to native ones in terms of their interaction with fruit-eating birds.