Naturalized species drive functional trait shifts in plant communities

作者：Magda Garbowski, Daniel C. Laughlin, Dana M. Blumenthal, Helen R. Sofaer, David T. Barnett, Evelyn M. Beaury, D. M. Buonaiuto, Jeffrey D. Corbin, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Regan Early, Andrea N. Nebhut, Laís Petri, Montserrat Vilà, Ian S. Pearse · 发表于：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1073/pnas.2403120121 · 被引用次数：12 · 研究领域：Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Plant and animal studies、Species Distribution and Climate Change

Despite decades of research documenting the consequences of naturalized and invasive plant species on ecosystem functions, our understanding of the functional underpinnings of these changes remains rudimentary. This is partially due to ineffective scaling of trait differences between native and naturalized species to whole plant communities. Working with data from over 75,000 plots and over 5,500 species from across the United States, we show that changes in the functional composition of communities associated with increasing abundance of naturalized species mirror the differences in traits between native and naturalized plants. We find that communities with greater abundance of naturalized species are more resource acquisitive aboveground and belowground, shorter, more shallowly rooted, and increasingly aligned with an independent strategy for belowground resource acquisition via thin fine roots with high specific root length. We observe shifts toward herbaceous-dominated communities but shifts within both woody and herbaceous functional groups follow community-level patterns for most traits. Patterns are remarkably similar across desert, grassland, and forest ecosystems. Our results demonstrate that the establishment and spread of naturalized species, likely in combination with underlying environmental shifts, leads to predictable and consistent changes in community-level traits that can alter ecosystem functions.