A theory of ecological invasions and its implications for eco-evolutionary dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Predicting the outcomes of species invasions is a central goal of ecology, a task made especially challenging due to ecological feedbacks. To address this, we develop a general theory of ecological invasions applicable to a wide variety of ecological models: including Lotka-Volterra models, consumer resource models, and models with cross feeding. Importantly, our framework remains valid even when invading evolved (nonrandom) communities and accounts for invasion-driven species extinctions. We derive analytical expressions relating invasion fitness to invader abundance, shifts in the community, and extinction conditions. These results can be understood through a quantity we term "dressed invasion fitness," which augments the traditional notion of invasion fitness by incorporating ecological

SUBMITTER: Feng Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12704713 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature