Dataset Information

Dimensions of invasiveness: Links between local abundance, geographic range size, and habitat breadth in Europe's alien and native floras.

ABSTRACT: Understanding drivers of success for alien species can inform on potential future invasions. Recent conceptual advances highlight that species may achieve invasiveness via performance along at least three distinct dimensions: 1) local abundance, 2) geographic range size, and 3) habitat breadth in naturalized distributions. Associations among these dimensions and the factors that determine success in each have yet to be assessed at large geographic scales. Here, we combine data from over one million vegetation plots covering the extent of Europe and its habitat diversity with databases on species' distributions, traits, and historical origins to provide a comprehensive assessment of invasiveness dimensions for the European alien seed plant flora. Invasiveness dimensions are linked in alien distributions, leading to a continuum from overall poor invaders to super invaders-abundant, widespread aliens that invade diverse habitats. This pattern echoes relationships among analogous dimensions measured for native European species. Success along invasiveness dimensions was associated with details of alien species' introduction histories: earlier introduction dates were positively associated with all three dimensions, and consistent with theory-based expectations, species originating from other continents, particularly acquisitive growth strategists, were among the most successful invaders in Europe. Despite general correlations among invasiveness dimensions, we identified habitats and traits associated with atypical patterns of success in only one or two dimensions-for example, the role of disturbed habitats in facilitating widespread specialists. We conclude that considering invasiveness within a multidimensional framework can provide insights into invasion processes while also informing general understanding of the dynamics of species distributions.

SUBMITTER: Fristoe TS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8179145 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Dimensions of invasiveness: Links between local abundance, geographic range size, and habitat breadth in Europe's alien and native floras.

Fristoe Trevor S TS Chytrý Milan M Dawson Wayne W Essl Franz F Heleno Ruben R Kreft Holger H Maurel Noëlie N Pergl Jan J Pyšek Petr P Seebens Hanno H Weigelt Patrick P Vargas Pablo P Yang Qiang Q Attorre Fabio F Bergmeier Erwin E Bernhardt-Römermann Markus M Biurrun Idoia I Boch Steffen S Bonari Gianmaria G Botta-Dukát Zoltán Z Bruun Hans Henrik HH Byun Chaeho C Čarni Andraž A Carranza Maria Laura ML Catford Jane A JA Cerabolini Bruno E L BEL Chacón-Madrigal Eduardo E Ciccarelli Daniela D Ćušterevska Renata R de Ronde Iris I Dengler Jürgen J Golub Valentin V Haveman Rense R Hough-Snee Nate N Jandt Ute U Jansen Florian F Kuzemko Anna A Küzmič Filip F Lenoir Jonathan J Macanović Armin A Marcenò Corrado C Martin Adam R AR Michaletz Sean T ST Mori Akira S AS Niinemets Ülo Ü Peterka Tomáš T Pielech Remigiusz R Rašomavičius Valerijus V Rūsiņa Solvita S Dias Arildo S AS Šibíková Mária M Šilc Urban U Stanisci Angela A Jansen Steven S Svenning Jens-Christian JC Swacha Grzegorz G van der Plas Fons F Vassilev Kiril K van Kleunen Mark M

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20210601 22

Understanding drivers of success for alien species can inform on potential future invasions. Recent conceptual advances highlight that species may achieve invasiveness via performance along at least three distinct dimensions: 1) local abundance, 2) geographic range size, and 3) habitat breadth in naturalized distributions. Associations among these dimensions and the factors that determine success in each have yet to be assessed at large geographic scales. Here, we combine data from over one mill ...[more]

PMID: 34050023

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Project description:A major focus of invasion biology is understanding the traits associated with introduction success. Most studies assess these traits in the invaded region, while only few compare nonindigenous species to the pool of potential invaders in their native region. We focused on the niche breadth hypothesis, commonly evoked but seldom tested, which states that generalist species are more likely to become introduced as they are capable of thriving under a wide set of conditions. Based on the massive introduction of tropical species into the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal (Lessepsian migration), we defined ascidians in the Red Sea as the pool of potential invaders. We constructed unique settlement plates, each representing six different niches, to assess ascidian niche breadth, and deployed them in similar habitats in the native and invaded regions. For each species found on plates, we evaluated its abundance, relative abundance across successional stages, and niche breadth, and then compared (1) species in the Red Sea known to have been introduced into the Mediterranean (Lessepsian species) and those not known from the Mediterranean (non-Lessepsian); and (2) nonindigenous and indigenous species in the Mediterranean. Lessepsian species identified on plates in the Red Sea demonstrated wider niche breadth than non-Lessepsian species, supporting the niche breadth hypothesis within the native region. No differences were found between Lessepsian and non-Lessepsian species in species abundance and successional stages. In the Mediterranean, nonindigenous species numerically dominated the settlement plates. This precluded robust comparisons of niche breadth between nonindigenous and indigenous species in the invaded region. In conclusion, using Red Sea ascidians as the pool of potential invaders, we found clear evidence supporting the niche breadth hypothesis in the native region. We suggest that such patterns may often be obscured when conducting trait-based studies in the invaded regions alone. Our findings indicate that quantifying the niche breadth of species in their native regions will improve estimates of invasiveness potential.

Project description:Urban areas are being affected by rapidly increasing human-made pressures that can strongly homogenize biodiversity, reduce habitat heterogeneity, and facilitate the invasion of alien species. One of the key concerns in invaded urban areas is comparing the trait-environment relationships between alien and native species, to determine the underlying causes of invasiveness. In the current study, we used a trait-environment dataset of 130 native plants and 33 alien plants, recorded in 100 plots covering 50 urban areas and 50 non-urban ones in an urbanization gradient in the arid mountainous Saint-Katherine protected area in Egypt. We measured eleven morphological plant traits for each plant species and ten environmental variables in each plot, including soil resources and human-made pressures, to construct trait-environment associations using a fourth-corner analysis. In addition, we measured the mean functional and phylogenetic distances between the two species groups along an urbanization gradient. Our results revealed strongly significant relationships of alien species traits with human-made pressures and soil resources in urban areas. However, in non-urban areas, alien species traits showed weak and non-significant associations with the environment. Simultaneously, native plants showed consistency in their trait-environment relationships in urban and non-urban areas. In line with these results, the functional and phylogenetic distances declined between the aliens and natives in urban areas, indicating biotic homogenization with increasing urbanization, and increased in non-urban areas, indicating greater divergence between the two species groups. Thereby, this study provided evidence that urbanization can reveal the plasticity of alien species and can also be the leading cause of homogenization in an arid urban area. Future urban studies should investigate the potential causes of taxonomic, genetic, and functional homogenization in species composition in formerly more diverse urbanized areas.

Project description:BackgroundGeographic range is a good indicator of extinction susceptibility in fossil marine species and higher taxa. The widely-recognized positive correlation between geographic range and taxonomic duration is typically attributed to either accumulating geographic range with age or an extinction buffering effect, whereby cosmopolitan taxa persist longer because they are reintroduced by dispersal from remote source populations after local extinction. The former hypothesis predicts that all taxa within a region should have equal probabilities of extinction regardless of global distributions while the latter predicts that cosmopolitan genera will have greater survivorship within a region than endemics within the same region. Here we test the assumption that all taxa within a region have equal likelihoods of extinction.Methodology/principal findingsWe use North American and European occurrences of marine genera from the Paleobiology Database and the areal extent of marine sedimentary cover in North America to show that endemic and cosmopolitan fossil marine genera have significantly different range-duration relationships and that broad geographic range and longevity are both predicted by regional environmental breadth. Specifically, genera that occur outside of the focal region are significantly longer lived and have larger geographic ranges and environmental breadths within the focal region than do their endemic counterparts, even after controlling for differences in sampling intensity. Analyses of the number of paleoenvironmental zones occupied by endemic and cosmopolitan genera suggest that the number of paleoenvironmental zones occupied is a key factor of geographic range that promotes genus survivorship.Conclusions/significanceWide environmental tolerances within a single region predict both broad geographic range and increased longevity in marine genera over evolutionary time. This result provides a specific driving mechanism for the spatial and temporal distributions of marine genera at regional and global scales and is consistent with the niche-breadth hypothesis operating on macroevolutionary timescales.

Dataset Information

Dimensions of invasiveness: Links between local abundance, geographic range size, and habitat breadth in Europe's alien and native floras.

Publications

Dimensions of invasiveness: Links between local abundance, geographic range size, and habitat breadth in Europe's alien and native floras.

Similar Datasets

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