DOI: 10.5061/dryad.tx95x6b45
title: Herbivory and elevated levels of CO2 and nutrients separately, rather than synergistically, impacted biomass production and allocation in invasive and native plant species

description: Large parts of the Earth are experiencing environmental change caused by
 alien plant invasions, rising atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide
 (CO2), and nutrient enrichments. Elevated CO2 and nutrient concentrations
 can separately favour growth of invasive plants over that of natives but
 how herbivory may modulate the magnitude and direction of net responses by
 the two groups of plants to simultaneous CO2 and nutrient
 enrichments remains unknown. In line with the enemy release hypothesis,
 invasive plant species should reallocate metabolites from costly
 anti-herbivore defences into greater growth following escape from intense
 herbivory in the native range. Therefore, invasive plants should have
 greater growth than natives under simultaneous CO2 and nutrient
 enrichments in the absence of herbivory. To test this prediction, we grew
 nine congeneric pairs of invasive and native plant species that naturally
 co-occurred in grasslands in China under two levels each of nutrient
 enrichment (low-nutrient vs. high-nutrient), herbivory (with herbivory vs.
 without herbivory) and under ambient (412 ± 0.6 ppm) and elevated (790.1 ±
 6.2 ppm) levels of CO2 concentrations in open-top chambers in a
 common garden. Elevated CO2 and nutrient enrichment separately increased
 total plant biomass, while herbivory reduced it regardless of the plant
 invasive status. High-nutrient treatment caused the plants to allocate a
 significantly lower proportion of total biomass to roots, while herbivory
 induced an opposite pattern. Herbivory suppressed total biomass production
 more strongly in native plants than invasive plants. The plants exhibited
 significant interspecific and intergeneric variation in their responses to
 the various treatment combinations. Overall, these results suggest that
 elevated CO2 and nutrients and herbivory may separately, rather than
 synergistically, impact productivity of the invasive and co-occurring
 native plant species in our study system. Moreover, interspecific
 variation in resource-use strategies was more important than invasive
 status in determining plant responses to the various treatment
 combinations.
description: This zip directory contains data of plant biomass, CO2 concentrations, air
 temperature and soil moisture. 1. Data of plant biomass under different
 treatments in our experiment * NO. random numbers during our experiment; *
 OTC: eight open-top chambers (OTCs) in our experiment; * Treat.R:
 compartments within the OTCs; * CO2: treatment include atmospheric CO2
 concentration and elevated CO2 concentration; * Herbivory: treatment of
 herbivory (with herbivory vs. without herbivory); * N.add: treatment of
 nutrient enrichment (low-nutrient vs. high-nutrient); * Sowing:
 reproduction modes; * Species: species identities; * Genus: genus
 identities ; * Family: family identities ; * Status: plant species
 invasive status (native vs. invasive); * Total\_biomass: plant total
 biomass in each pot, measured in grams; * RMF: root mass fraction in each
 pot, ratio data with no dimension. 2. Data of CO2 concentrations under
 ambient CO2 and elevated CO2 treatment OTCs * Min: different minutes in an
 hour; * aCO2: average CO2 concentrations in ambient CO2 treatment OTCs,
 measured in ppm; * eCO2: average CO2 concentrations in elevated CO2
 treatment OTCs, measured in ppm. 3. Data of air temperature and soil
 moisture under ambient CO2 and elevated CO2 treatment OTCs * treatment:
 treatment include atmospheric CO2 concentration and elevated CO2
 concentration; * date: different date during our experiment; *
 soil\_temp/air\_temp/air\_mois: air temperature (measured in ℃), soil
 temperature (measured in ℃) and air humidity (ratio data，%) in ambient CO2
 and elevated CO2 OTCs.