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Erica Porter Bachelor of Science THE ROOTS OF INVASION: BELOWGROUND TRAITS OF INVASIVE AND NATIVE AUSTRALIAN GRASSES Erica Porter Bachelor of Science Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy School of Earth, Environmental, and Biological Sciences Faculty of Science and Engineering Queensland University of Technology 2019 Keywords Ammonium, African lovegrass, Australian grasslands, belowground traits, buffel grass, Cenchrus ciliaris, Cenchrus purpurascens, Chloris gayana, Chloris truncata, Eragrostis curvula, Eragrostis sororia, functional traits, germination, grassland ecology, invasion ecology, invasion paradox, Johnson grass, leaf economic spectrum, low-resource environments, microdialysis, nitrate, nitrogen fluxes, nitrogen uptake efficiency, nitrogen use efficiency, resource economic spectrum, Rhodes grass, root economic spectrum, root traits, Sorghum halepense, Sorghum leiocladum, swamp foxtail, theory of invasibility, wild sorghum, windmill grass, woodlands lovegrass The Roots of Invasion: Belowground traits of invasive and native Australian grasses i Abstract Non-native grasses, originally introduced for pasture improvement, threaten Australia’s important and unique grasslands. Much of Australia’s grasslands are characterised by low resources and are an unlikely home for non-native grasses that have not evolved within these ecosystems. The mechanisms explaining this invasion remain equivocal. Ecologists use functional traits to classify species along a spectrum of resource conservation specialists and resource acquisition specialists. Previous research in Australia supports the trend that the aboveground traits of these non-native grasses follow the expected convention as resource acquisition specialists with greater biomass and height. The importance of root systems in trait-based research has recently been identified; however, few studies have concentrated on belowground traits across multiple native and non-native Australian grasses. I quantified a suite of above- and belowground traits among four congener pairs of native and non-native Australian grasses and found that some, but not all, expected acquisition specialist traits correlated with the non-native grass species. Instead, I found a mixture of resource acquisition and resource conservation traits within the belowground traits of the Australian native grasses. Functional traits are only a surrogate measure of function. To confirm my hypothesis that non-native grasses have greater nitrogen uptake abilities, I took a further step towards measuring function. Using microdialysis as a novel technique allowed me to sample the soil nitrogen availability experimentally across all eight species in real time throughout their early stages of growth. I found that the natives and non-natives differ in their ability to absorb the available nitrogen. Non-natives were able to absorb nitrate at a faster rate within the first few weeks of growth compared with natives. The patterns found across congener pairs in the functional trait study were congruent with those of the microdialysis study. My study provides foundational knowledge regarding the life-history strategies of native and non-native grasses, which will be critical for devising effective control strategies that favour native species in Australia’s economically and ecologically valuable land. The Roots of Invasion: Belowground traits of invasive and native Australian grasses ii Table of Contents Keywords .................................................................................................................................. i Abstract .................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ...........................................................................................................................v List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ xiii Statement of Original Authorship ......................................................................................... xiv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................xv Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background .....................................................................................................................2 1.2 Literature review .............................................................................................................6 1.3 Purposes ........................................................................................................................29 1.4 Significance and scope .................................................................................................30 1.5 Thesis outline ................................................................................................................30 Chapter 2: Germination probability of native and non-native Australian grasses 32 2.1 Aims and objectives ......................................................................................................32 2.2 Research design ............................................................................................................32 2.3 Analysis ........................................................................................................................34 2.4 Results ..........................................................................................................................34 2.5 Discussion and Conclusion ...........................................................................................36 Chapter 3: Functional traits of native and non-native Australian grasses ... 39 3.1 Aims and objectives ......................................................................................................39 3.2 Research design ............................................................................................................40 3.3 Analysis ........................................................................................................................43 3.4 Results ..........................................................................................................................44 3.5 Discussion and Conclusion ...........................................................................................67 Chapter 4: Microdialysis reveals the function behind functional traits ....... 76 4.1 Aims and objectives ......................................................................................................76 4.2 Research design ............................................................................................................78 4.3 Analysis ........................................................................................................................81 4.4 Results ..........................................................................................................................82 4.5 Discussion and Conclusion ...........................................................................................92 Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusions ........................................................... 99 5.1 Discussion .....................................................................................................................99 The Roots of Invasion: Belowground traits of invasive and native Australian grasses iii 5.2 Limitations ................................................................................................................. 102 5.3 Future research ........................................................................................................... 104 5.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 108 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 110 Appendices .............................................................................................................. 123 Appendix A .......................................................................................................................... 123 Appendix B .......................................................................................................................... 124 The Roots of Invasion: Belowground traits of invasive and native Australian grasses iv List of Figures Figure 1.1 Distribution maps of all eight grasses grouped into their congener pairs. Distributions across congener pairs are comparable, and all of the native grasses are commonly found across multiple ecosystems (Herbaria, 2018). Non-native grasses are on the left within each pair. ......... 5 Figure 1.2 Diagram of the potential effects of anthropogenic drivers such as non-native species introduction into native environments (Isbell et al., 2017, p. 65). It is important to note that the economy and human well- being are affected and entwined with ecosystem functioning and ecosystem well-being. Biodiversity loss is not only detrimental at an environmental level but has the potential to affect ecosystem services and human well-being negatively. The yellow blocks depict social components, the blue blocks
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