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<p>Invasive species can reshape communities by altering the cues that guide animal behavior, and the outcomes of species invasions depend on how consumers respond to these novel conditions. When invasive plants share structural or nutritional traits with native species, but do not provide the same fitness benefits to herbivores, these mismatched cues may generate ecological traps. The likelihood of such traps depends on plant functional equivalence and whether consumers generalize to novel vegetation or maintain preferential relationships with resident plants. To explore these ideas, we combined mesocosm experiments, diet trials, and structural measurements to test how an invasive plant (<i>Artemisia vulgaris</i>) influences the relationship between refuge use, foraging, and survival in a classic old-field food web. We found that grasshopper consumers preferred the resident forb (<i>Solidago rugosa</i>) for food, even though diet trials showed equivalent growth and survival when fed <i>Artemisia</i> and <i>Solidago</i>. At the same time, grasshoppers sheltered on both forbs and exhibited similar survival across treatments, revealing flexibility in habitat use with no fitness consequences. Together, our results show that invasive plants decoupled refuge and forage roles without producing the ecological trap expected under strong top-down control. Behavioral flexibility in habitat use buffered consumers from potential mismatches, but more rigid foraging preferences reduced the potential for consumer control of plant invasion. By highlighting how consumers integrate structural and nutritional cues under novel conditions, this work emphasizes the context dependence of ecological traps and identifies a key role for behavioral flexibility in mediating species interactions in invaded ecosystems.</p>

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Consumers show flexible refuge use but more rigid foraging under plant invasion

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月9日

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  • Nathalie R. Sommer,
  • Catherine B. Moore,
  • Oswald J. Schmitz,
  • Julia D. Monk

摘要

Invasive species can reshape communities by altering the cues that guide animal behavior, and the outcomes of species invasions depend on how consumers respond to these novel conditions. When invasive plants share structural or nutritional traits with native species, but do not provide the same fitness benefits to herbivores, these mismatched cues may generate ecological traps. The likelihood of such traps depends on plant functional equivalence and whether consumers generalize to novel vegetation or maintain preferential relationships with resident plants. To explore these ideas, we combined mesocosm experiments, diet trials, and structural measurements to test how an invasive plant (Artemisia vulgaris) influences the relationship between refuge use, foraging, and survival in a classic old-field food web. We found that grasshopper consumers preferred the resident forb (Solidago rugosa) for food, even though diet trials showed equivalent growth and survival when fed Artemisia and Solidago. At the same time, grasshoppers sheltered on both forbs and exhibited similar survival across treatments, revealing flexibility in habitat use with no fitness consequences. Together, our results show that invasive plants decoupled refuge and forage roles without producing the ecological trap expected under strong top-down control. Behavioral flexibility in habitat use buffered consumers from potential mismatches, but more rigid foraging preferences reduced the potential for consumer control of plant invasion. By highlighting how consumers integrate structural and nutritional cues under novel conditions, this work emphasizes the context dependence of ecological traps and identifies a key role for behavioral flexibility in mediating species interactions in invaded ecosystems.