Is there evidence for volatile novel weapons in the invasive weed mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)?
Barney, Jacob*,1, Sparks, Jed1, Whitlow, Thomas1, 1 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY ABSTRACT- One mechanism proposed to explain the success of invasive species in their introduced range is that of secondary metabolite mediated plant-plant interactions. The Novel Weapons Hypothesis posits that chemicals exuded in the native range are benign to the surrounding plant community due to their coevolutionary history, whereas in the introduced range these compounds are often foreign to the surrounding biota and become toxic. To date, this theory has primarily been examined in knapweed (Centaurea spp.) root exudates with no attention paid to atmospherically emitted secondary products. Biogenic volatile organic carbon compounds (BVOC) are gaseous plant products involved in the formation of ozone and the propagation of aerosol in the atmosphere, as well as in direct plant-plant interactions. Several studies have putatively demonstrated BVOC (specifically terpenoid) mediated allelopathy in several
