Do invasive alien plants benefit more from global environmental change than native plants?

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Environmental Science
• Botany

Background:

• Invasive alien plant species pose significant threats to native biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and economies.
• Global environmental changes are predicted to exacerbate plant invasions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if there are general patterns in the performance differences between invasive and native plant species under various global environmental change components.
• To assess the impact of elevated temperature, CO2, nitrogen deposition, and precipitation changes on plant performance.

Main Methods:

• A phylogenetically controlled meta-analysis was conducted.
• A database of 74 invasive and 117 native plant species was compiled from studies measuring performance under environmental change factors.

Main Results:

• Elevated temperature and CO2 enrichment significantly enhanced invasive alien plant performance more than native plants.
• Invasive plants showed a slightly stronger positive response to increased nitrogen deposition and precipitation, though not statistically significant.
• Invasive plants exhibited a slightly stronger negative response to decreased precipitation, also not statistically significant.

Conclusions:

• Increases in global warming and atmospheric CO2 are likely to accelerate the spread of invasive plants.
• While drought may hinder invasions, other environmental changes favor their proliferation, posing future ecological and economic risks.