Effect of Two Different Habitats on Ragweed Invasion

Identifying the sensitive habitats with high invasibility is critical for management of biological invasion. Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia Linn.) has been identified as one of the most dangerous invasive exotic species in many countries throughout the world. The experiment took ragweek as a model invader to reveal the community invisibility of different habitats. Compared with bare plots, the biomass, plant height, survival rate, and community dominance of ragweed were reduced by 590 g·m-2, 43.7 cm, 21.4% and 0.695 respectively when they invaded communities with four resident species richness (species richness level: 1, 4, 9, 16). The results suggested that the presence of native species had strong negative effects on the performance of the invader species. The presence of native species occupied the niche space and left few empty niches for the colonization of the invaders. The results revealed that planting native species in bare soils, and maintaining the native communities with high diversity, was effective strategies to control the invasion of exotic species