Naturalized species drive functional trait shifts in plant communities.

ABSTRACT: Despite decades of research documenting the consequences of naturalized and invasive plant species on ecosystem functions, our understanding of the functional underpinnings of these changes remains rudimentary. This is partially due to ineffective scaling of trait differences between native and naturalized species to whole plant communities. Working with data from over 75,000 plots and over 5,500 species from across the United States, we show that changes in the functional composition of communities associated with increasing abundance of naturalized species mirror the differences in traits between native and naturalized plants. We find that communities with greater abundance of naturalized species are more resource acquisitive aboveground and belowground, shorter, more shallowly rooted, a

SUBMITTER: Garbowski M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11459196 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature