Towards a theory of microbially-mediated invasion encompassing parasitism and mutualism

Biological invasions pose major ecological and economic threats, and extensive research has been dedicated to understanding and predicting their dynamics. Most studies focus on the biological invasion of single species, and only in recent years has it been realized that multi-species interactions that involve native and invasive host species and their microbial symbionts can play important roles in determining invasion outputs. A theoretical framework that treats these interactions and their impact is lacking. Here we offer such a framework and use it to explore possible dynamics that may emerge from the sharing of native and non-native symbionts among native and non-native host species. Thus, for example, invasive plants might benefit from native microbial communities in the soil, or might be particularly successful if they carry with them parasites to which competing native hosts are susceptible. On the other hand, invasion might be hindered by native parasites that spread from native to invasive individuals. The mathematical framework that we present in this study provides a new mechanistic, cohesive, and intuition-enhancing tool for theoretically exploring the ways by which the subtleties of host-microbe relationships can influence invasion dynamics. We identify multiple pathways through which microbes can facilitate (or prevent) host invasion, microbial invasion, and the invasion of both hosts and their co-introduced microbes. We disentangle invasion outcomes and suggest possible ecological dynamics that may be underexplored in current invasion biology literature. Our work sets the foundations for invasion theory that includes a community-level view of invasive and native hosts as well as their microbial symbionts.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10530-025-03711-4.