Wild herbivores enhance resistance to invasion by exotic cacti in an African savanna

1. Whether wild herbivores confer biotic resistance to invasion by exotic plants remains a key question in ecology. There is evidence that wild herbivores can impede invasion by exotic plants, but it is unclear whether and how this generalises across ecosystems with varying wild herbivore diversity and functional groups of plants, particularly over long-term (decadal) time frames.
2. Using data from three long-term (13- to 26-year) exclosure experiments in central Kenya, we tested the effects of wild herbivores on the density of exotic invasive cacti, Opuntia stricta and O. ficus-indica (collectively, Opuntia), which are among the worst invasive species globally. We also examined relationships between wild herbivore richness and elephant occurrence probability with the probability of O. stricta presence at the landscape level (6,150 km2).
3. Opuntia densities were 74% to 99% lower in almost all plots accessible to wild herbivores and increased more rapidly in plots excluding wild herbiv...