title: Do invasive alien plants benefit more from global environmental change than native plants?
abstract: Invasive alien plant species threaten native biodiversity, disrupt ecosystem functions and can cause large economic damage. Plant invasions have been predicted to further increase under ongoing global environmental change. Numerous case studies have compared the performance of invasive and native plant species in response to global environmental change components (i.e. changes in mean levels of precipitation, temperature, atmospheric CO2concentration or nitrogen deposition). Individually, these studies usually involve low numbers of species and therefore the results cannot be generalized. Therefore, we performed a phylogenetically controlled meta-analysis to assess whether there is a general pattern of differences in invasive and native plant performance under each component of global environmental change. We compiled a database of studies that reported performance measures for 74 invasive alien plant species and 117 native plant species in response to one of the above-mentioned global environmental change components. We found that elevated temperature and CO2enrichment increased the performance of invasive alien plants more strongly than was the case for native plants. Invasive alien plants tended to also have a slightly stronger positive response to increased N deposition and increased precipitation than native plants, but these differences were not significant (N deposition: P = 0.051; increased precipitation: P = 0.679). Invasive alien plants tended to have a slightly stronger negative response to decreased precipitation than native plants, although this difference was also not significant (P = 0.060). So while drought could potentially reduce plant invasion, increases in the four other components of global environmental change considered, particularly global warming and atmospheric CO2enrichment, may further increase the spread of invasive plants in the future.
authors.affiliation: Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, D-78457, Konstanz, Germany.|Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China.
authors.forename: Yanjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, D-78457, Konstanz, Germany.|Department of Applied and Technical Biology, Technical University of Kenya, P.O. Box 52428-00200, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Ayub M O
authors.initials: AMO
authors.lastname: Oduor
authors.affiliation: School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, No. 130 Changjiang West Road, Hefei, 230036, China.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manea
authors.affiliation: Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia.
authors.forename: Ifeanna M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Tooth
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.
authors.forename: Michelle R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Leishman
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China.
authors.forename: Xingliang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, D-78457, Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Kleunen
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D017753:Ecosystem; D057232:Global Warming; D058865:Introduced Species; D063245:Plant Development; D013696:Temperature
keywords: climate change; effect size; global environmental change; meta-analysis; nitrogen deposition; plant invasion; precipitation; temperature