Importancia de la integración clonal en las invasiones biológicas

Resumo

One core research question in invasion biology is to explain why some species become invasive while others do not. In spite of the research effort developed in the last years to explain biological invasions, this is a process still not well understood. Some plant characteristics might explain the success of invasive species better than others. In particular, clonal growth has been pointed out as an attribute that could contribute to the invasiveness of plants. However, and although many of the most aggressive invasive plant species show clonal growth, little research has been conducted to determine the role of clonal traits in successful invaders. Clonal plants play important roles in many ecosystem processes and dominate many plant communities. One of the most remarkable traits associated with clonal growth is the capacity for physiological integration (resource sharing between connected members of the clonal system). Recent studies have demonstrated that clonal integration increases survival and growth of aggressive invaders. However, future research should be conducted to determine differences in clonal integration between exotic non-invasive and invasive congeners, and between populations from native and invaded range to determine the presence of adaptive evolution of clonal traits during the invasion process and therefore elucidate the role of clonality in biological invasions.