Contact CEH NORA team at noraceh@ceh.ac.ukThe NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner. The invasion of native habitats by alien species has received considerable attention. 1 However, in Britain high levels of dominance by a small number of aggressive native 2 plant species may have an equal, or greater, impact on the richness of native 3 woodlands. Here, we examine this hypothesis by modelling the realized niche of 4 native-dominant species along the principal coenocline of British woodlands, and 5 examined niche overlaps with 78 woodland specialist species and two alien species. 6Four native species had a much greater cover than all other field-layer species, and 7 between them they entirely covered the response range of all other field-layer species, 8 replacing one another along the coenocline. These findings, combined with 9 autecological information suggest that Hedera helix, Mercurialis perennis, Pteridium 10 aquilinum and Rubus fruticosus have the potential to become 'over-dominant ' and 11 perhaps may impinge on other field-layer species. Our results also identified which 12 field-layer species are likely to be impacted by a change in abundance of each of these 13 dominant-species, and as such, provide a novel quantitative method of risk assessment 14 to aid conservation policy. Understanding how woodland communities remain 15 diverse, even in the presence of aggressive native species, may provide insights into 16 how the impact of exotic invasive species can be managed. 17 18