Functional differences between native and alien species: a global-scale comparison

Alejandro Ordonez*,1, Ian J. Wright2 and Han Olff 1

1 Community and Conservation Ecology Group, University of Groningen, PO Box 14, 9750 AA Haren, the Netherlands; and 2Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109 Sydney, Australia Summary

1. A prevalent question in the study of plant invasions has been whether or not invasions can be explained on the basis of traits. Despite many attempts, a synthetic view of multi-trait differences between alien and native species is not yet available.

2. We compiled a database of three ecologically important traits (specific leaf area, typical maximum canopy height, individual seed mass) for 4473 species sampled over 95 communities (3784 species measured in their native range, 689 species in their introduced range, 207 in both ranges).

3. Considering each trait separately, co-occurring native and alien species significantly differed in their traits. These differences, although modest, were expressed in a combined 15% higher specific leaf area, 16% lower canopy height and 26% smaller seeds.

4. Using three novel multi-trait metrics of functional diversity, aliens showed significantly smaller trait ranges, larger divergences and a consistent differentiation from the median trait combination of co-occurring natives.

5. We conclude that the simultaneous evaluation of multiple traits is an important novel direction in understanding invasion success. Our results support the phenotypic divergence hypothesis that predicts functional trait differences contribute to the success of alien species.

土著种和外来种的功能差异：全球尺度比较

1 植物入侵研究中的普遍问题是，基于性状是否能够解释入侵。尽管做了许多尝试，但是我们还未获得外来物种和土著种多性状差异的综合观点。
2 我们汇集了从超过95个群落中采样得到的4473种植物的三个重要生态性状（特征叶面积，典型最大冠层高度，个体种子质量）的数据库（其中3784种植物是在其原生长地测量的，689种是在其引入地测量，207种两种情况均进行测量）。
3 分别考虑每个性状，共存的土著种和外来种性状存在显著差异。虽然这些差异并不大，外来种相对于土著种特征叶面积大15%，冠层高度矮 16%，种子重量轻26%。
4 运用三种功能多样性的新型多性状度量，外来物种表现了显著的更窄的性状变化范围，更大的离散性以及都与共存的土著种性状中值存在更大的分异。
5 我们的结论是，对多性状的同步评价是在理解入侵成功中一个重要的新方向。我们的结果支持表型分异假说，即认为功能性状分异在外来物种成功入侵中起到重要作用。

 

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