Different effects of invader-native phylogenetic relatedness on invasion success and impact: a meta-analysis of Darwin's naturalization hypothesis.
Darwin's naturalization hypothesis (DNH), which predicts that alien species more distantly related to native communities are more likely to naturalize, has received much recent attention. The mixed findings from empirical studies that have tested DNH, however, seem to defy generalizations. Using meta-analysis to synthesize results of existing studies, we show that the predictive power of DNH depends on both the invasion stage and the spatial scale of the studies. Alien species more closely related to natives tended to be less successful at the local scale, supporting DNH; invasion success, however, was unaffected by alien-native relatedness at the regional scale. On the other hand, alien species with stronger impacts on native communities tended to be more closely related to natives at the local scale, but less closely related to natives at the regional scale. These patterns are generally consistent across different ecosystems, taxa and investigation methods. Our results revealed the different effects of invader-native relatedness on invader success and impact, suggesting the operation of different mechanisms across invasion stages and spatial scales.
School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, People's Republic of China School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210095, People's Republic of China.
Chao
C
Ma
School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, People's Republic of China.
Shao-Peng
SP
Li
School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, People's Republic of China.
Zhichao
Z
Pu
School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, People's Republic of China.
Jiaqi
J
Tan
College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210095, People's Republic of China liumq@njau.edu.cn.
Manqiang
0000-0001-6654-7795
M
Liu
Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210008, People's Republic of China.
Jing
J
Zhou
College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210095, People's Republic of China.
Huixin
H
Li
School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, People's Republic of China lin.jiang@biology.gatech.edu.
Lin
0000-0002-7114-0794
L
Jiang
D017753:Ecosystem; D058865:Introduced Species; D008954:Models, Biological; D010802:Phylogeny
Darwin's naturalization conundrum; biological invasions; invasion stage; meta-analysis; pre-adaptation hypothesis; spatial scale