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Science 14 October 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5746, pp. 243 - 244
DOI: 10.1126/science.1114851
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Perspectives

ECOLOGY:
Interrelated Causes of Plant Invasion

Dana Blumenthal

In his or her Perspective, Blumenthal discusses how plants from high-resource habitats are often poorly defended, nutritious, and strongly regulated by enemies. Consequently, these species may benefit the most by entering new habits to escape their natural enemies. This hypothesis predicts that high-resource invasive species may be particularly susceptible to biological control and that increases in resource availability will favor exotic plants.

The author is at the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Crops Research Laboratory, 1701 Center Avenue, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA. E-mail: dana.blumenthal{at}ars.usda.gov

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Synergy between pathogen release and resource availability in plant invasion.
D. Blumenthal, C. E. Mitchell, P. Pysek, and V. Jarosik (2009)
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Can Buffelgrass Invasions Be Controlled in the American Southwest? Using Invasion Ecology Theory to Understand Buffelgrass Success and Develop Comprehensive Restoration and Management.
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High seedling relative growth rate and specific leaf area are traits of invasive species: phylogenetically independent contrasts of woody angiosperms.
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E-Letters:

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Plant invasion hypothesis in complimentarity
Gyan P Sharma, et al.
Science Online, 8 Nov 2005 [Full text]

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