Why are non-native plants successful? Consistently fast economic traits and novel origin jointly explain abundance across US ecoregions

Why are non-native plants successful? Consistently fast economic traits and novel origin jointly explain abundance across US ecoregions

© 2025 The Author(s). New Phytologist © 2025 New Phytologist Foundation. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.

Détails bibliographiques
Publié dans:The New phytologist. - 1979. - 248(2025), 3 vom: 06. Okt., Seite 1192-1204
Auteur principal: Blumenthal, Dana M (Auteur)
Autres auteurs: Diez, Jeffrey, Pearse, Ian, Sofaer, Helen R, Sorte, Cascade J B, Barnett, David, Beaury, Evelyn M, Bradley, Bethany A, Corbin, Jeffrey D, Dukes, Jeffrey S, Early, Regan, Ibáñez, Inés, Laughlin, Daniel C, Petri, Laís, Vilà, Montserrat
Format: Article en ligne
Langue:English
Publié: 2025
Accès à la collection:The New phytologist
Sujets:Journal Article community‐weighted mean traits desert ecological novelty exotic plant species forest grassland invasive plant abundance leaf economic traits
Description
Résumé:© 2025 The Author(s). New Phytologist © 2025 New Phytologist Foundation. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.
Are non-native plants abundant because they are non-native, and have advantages over native plants, or because they possess 'fast' resource strategies, and have advantages in disturbed environments? This question is central to invasion biology but remains unanswered. We quantified the relative importance of resource strategy and biogeographic origin in 69 441 plots across the conterminous United States containing 11 280 plant species. Non-native species had faster economic traits than native species in most plant communities (77%, 86% and 82% of plots for leaf nitrogen concentration, specific leaf area, and leaf dry matter content). Non-native species also had distinct patterns of abundance, but these were not explained by their fast traits. Compared with functionally similar native species, non-native species were (1) more abundant in plains and deserts, indicating the importance of biogeographic origin, and less abundant in forested ecoregions, (2) were more abundant where co-occurring species had fast traits, for example due to disturbance, and (3) showed weaker signals of local environmental filtering. These results clarify the nature of plant invasion: Although non-native plants have consistently fast economic traits, other novel characteristics and processes likely explain their abundance and, therefore, impacts
Description:Date Completed 02.10.2025
Date Revised 02.10.2025
published: Print-Electronic
Citation Status MEDLINE
ISSN:1469-8137
DOI:10.1111/nph.70307