Propagule pressure and an invasion syndrome determine invasion success in a plant community model

Abstract

Species invasions are highly complex phenomena, influenced by several interacting factors, such as species traits, disturbance, or evolutionary history (Enders et al., 2020;Theoharides & Dukes, 2007). Gaining an understanding of these factors is necessary to understand the whole invasion process (Fleming & Dibble, 2015) and establish effective countermeasures (Novoa et al., 2020). Yet, the relative importance of various factors is difficult to derive from studies focusing only on single invasion events (Catford et al., 2009). Considering the impending global change scenarios and increased rate of biotic exchange, however, generalizable findings about biological invasions are still urgently needed (van Kleunen et al., 2015).

The establishment of plants following long-distance dispersal

“…Source strength and LDD capacity jointly increase the propagule pressure on a new range, increasing the likelihood of successful establishment; these are often considered the most consistent predictors of successful colonization [9][10][11]. According to Baker's law, monoecious and self-compatible plants should be more likely to undergo LDD than dioecious or self-incompatible (SI) species [12].…”

“…For example, directed long-distance dispersal via migratory birds towards northern latitudes is only possible for species whose fruiting period overlaps the spring migration [5]. Other traits unrelated to dispersal can also have a large influence on establishment success [10,11]. For example, the global success of the grasses might be partly due to the precocious embryo and large starch reserves aiding establishment [19].…”

“…Disturbance can affect native and alien plants at the same time, and these two contrary effects may sometimes cancel each other out, leaving no net change in species number [10]. For example, roads can facilitate distribution shifts of both native and non-native plant species [27].…”

Potential change in the future spatial distribution of submerged macrophyte species and species richness: the role of today's lake type and strength of compounded environmental change

“…This framework of applying a process-based model in combination with random, theoretical species (Webb et al, 2010;Zakharova et al, 2019) to identify hotspots of change can be a template also for other lake regions or even other species groups also within terrestrial systems, and is already applied e.g. for epiphytes (Petter et al, 2021) or invasive species on islands (Vedder et al, 2021). Overall, MGM can generate species richness patterns across different environmental gradients of nutrient availability, latitudes (by varying light intensity and seasonality), turbidity, water temperature, and depth.…”

Hybridization may aid evolutionary rescue of an endangered East African passerine

“…To investigate this, we used GeMM, a spatially and genetically explicit individual‐based model that has previously been used for eco‐evolutionary (Leidinger et al, 2021 ) and conservation‐oriented (Vedder, Leidinger, & Cabral, 2021 ) studies. We adapted and parameterized this model to fit the known behaviour and life‐history of the two Zosterops species.…”