A systematic review of arthropod community diversity in association with invasive plants

Abstract

Citation: Spa RD, Lortie CJ, Butter BJ (2013) A systematic review of arthropod community diversity in association with invasive plants. NeoBiota 16: 81–102. doi: 10.3897/neobiota.16.4190 Abstract Invasive plants represent a signicant nancial burden for land managers and also have the potential to severely degrade ecosystems. Arthropods interact strongly with plants, relying on them for food, shelter, and as nurseries for their young. For these reasons, the impacts of plant invasions are likely strongly reected by arthropod community dynamics including diversity and abundances. A systematic review was conducted to ascertain the state of the literature with respect to plant invaders and their associated arthropod communities. We found that the majority of studies did not biogeographically contrast arthro-pod community dynamics from both the home and away ranges and that studies were typically narrow in scope, focusing only on the herbivore feeding guild, rather than assessing two or more trophic levels. Importantly, relative arthropod richness was signicantly reduced on invasive plant species. Phylogenetic dierences between the invasive and local plant community as well as the plant functional group impact arthropod diversity patterns. A framework highlighting some interaction mechanisms between multiple arthropod trophic levels and native and invasive plants is discussed and future research directions relating to these interactions and the ndings herein are proposed.