Nitrogen allocation and partitioning in invasive and native Eupatorium species

There is a trade-off between nitrogen (N) allocation to photosynthesis and to defence. Invasive species may reduce N allocation to defence because of the absence of natural enemies. Thus, I hypothesised that invasive species may allocate a higher fraction of total leaf N to photosynthesis and have higher light-saturated photosynthetic rate (P-max) and photosynthetic N-use efficiency (PNUE) than closely related native species. To test these hypotheses, invasive Eupatorium adenophorum and native E. chinense and E. heterophyllum were compared in a limestone shrub. Unlike expectation, the invader did not allocate a higher fraction of leaf N to photosynthesis than the natives. However, it was more efficient in photosynthetic N partitioning than the natives. It partitioned a higher fraction of the photosynthetic N to carboxylation and showed higher use efficiency of the photosynthetic N, while the natives partitioned a higher fraction of the photosynthetic N to light-harvesting components. Total leaf N content was not significantly different among the three studied invasive and native species. For the invader, the higher fraction of leaf N allocated to carboxylation resulted in the higher N content in carboxylation and in both carboxylation and bioenergetics, which led to higher P-max, and therefore to higher PNUE, water-use efficiency, respiration efficiency and apparent quantum yield. These physiological advantages of the invader and its higher leaf area ratio may contribute to its invasiveness.