Niche dynamics of alien species do not differ among sexual and apomictic flowering plants

Abstract

Summary Biological invasions can be associated with shifts of the species’ climatic niches but the incidence of such shifts is under debate. The reproductive system might be a key factor controlling such shifts because it influences a species’ evolutionary flexibility. However, the link between reproductive systems and niche dynamics in plant invasions has been little studied so far.We compiled global occurrence data sets of 13 congeneric sexual and apomictic species pairs, and used principal components analysis (PCA) and kernel smoothers to compare changes in climatic niche optima, breadths and unfilling/expansion between native and alien ranges. Niche change metrics were compared between sexual and apomictic species.All 26 species showed changes in niche optima and/or breadth and 14 species significantly expanded their climatic niches. However, we found no effect of the reproductive system on niche dynamics. Instead, species with narrower native niches showed higher rates of niche expansion in the alien ranges.Our results suggest that niche shifts are frequent in plant invasions but evolutionary potential may not be of major importance for such shifts. Niche dynamics rather appear to be driven by changes of the realized niche without adaptive change of the fundamental climatic niche.

Naturalized alien flora of the world

“…In addition, it has been used to test some of the central hypotheses in invasion biology by relating naturalized species distributions to species traits (Dellinger et al 2016, Razanajatovo et al 2016), and to model the risks of future invasions . Among the main findings so far are that climate change will increase the naturalization risk from alien garden plants in Europe , and that emerging economies in megadiverse countries are regions most vulnerable to future plant invasions because of the interaction of global trade and climate change .…”

“…Among the main findings so far are that climate change will increase the naturalization risk from alien garden plants in Europe , and that emerging economies in megadiverse countries are regions most vulnerable to future plant invasions because of the interaction of global trade and climate change . GloNAF has also been used to demonstrate that niche dynamics of alien species do not differ between sexual and apomictic flowering plants (Dellinger et al 2016). Razanajatovo et al (2016) used GloNAF and found that selfing ability drives global naturalization of alien plants directly as well as indirectly owing to correlations with monocarpy and a large native range size, which both promote naturalization success.…”

Niche expansion of the invasive plant species Ageratina adenophora despite evolutionary constraints

“…For a detailed understanding of invasion processes, it is thus important to disentangle potential evolutionary adaptations of the fundamental niche from demographic and interspecific processes shaping the realized niche. However, the task of disentangling these two types of niches is not often straightforward (Dellinger et al, ; Tingley et al, ).…”

Modelling plant invasion pathways in protected areas under climate change: implication for invasion management

“…We need to take potential niche shifts of IPS between native and invasive ranges into consideration and use more occurrence records covering the niches of native and invasive ranges to model the distributions of IPS under climate change (Early and Sax, 2014;Dellinger et al, 2016;Wan et al, 2016a, b;Wang et al, 2017). With accelerating economic globalization and rapid climate change, a risk analysis of IPS on regional and global scales and intensive studies of the dispersal methods of IPS are crucial.…”

“…Petitpierre et al (2012) showed that IPS can grow and survive in regions with environmental conditions similar to those in their native ranges. However, some studies indicated that the climatic niches of IPS may shift between native and invasive ranges and that IPS have the ability to occupy new environmental niches that differ from their native ranges (Early and Sax, 2014;Dellinger et al, 2016;Wan et al, 2016a, b; Plant invasion pathways in protected areas 2017). This implies that IPS expand and establish under the same environmental conditions in native and invasive ranges in the above-mentioned situations (Petitpierre et al, 2012;Early and Sax, 2014;Wan et al, 2016a, b;Wang et al, 2017).…”