TY - JOUR

T1 - Species from different taxonomic groups show similar invasion traits

AU - Heger, Tina

AU - Haider, Sylvia

AU - Saul, Wolf-Christian

AU - Jeschke, Jonathan

N1 - We thank Johannes Kollmann for helpful comments on the manuscript, and Morgan McCarthy for language corrections. JMJ was financially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (JE 288/2-1, JE 288/4-1, JE 288/9-1).

PY - 2015/4/21

Y1 - 2015/4/21

N2 - Invasion ecology tends to treat taxonomic groups separately. However, given that all invasive species go through the same stages of the invasion process (transport, escape, establishment, spread), it is likely that—across taxa—comparable traits help to success-fully complete this process ("invasion traits"). Perhaps not all invasive species have the same invasion traits, but different combinations of invasion traits can be found among invaders, corresponding to different possibilities to become a successful invader. These combinations of invasion traits might be linked to tax-onomic affiliation, but this is not necessarily the case. We created a global dataset with 201 invasive species from seven major taxonomic groups (animals, green plants, fungi, heterokonts, bacteria, red algae, alveol-ates) and 13 invasion traits that are applicable across all taxa. The dataset was analysed with cluster analysis to search for similarities in combinations of invasion traits. Three of the five clusters, comprising 60% of all species, contain several major taxonomic groups. While some invasion trait frequencies were significantly related to taxonomic affiliation, the results show that invasive species from different tax-onomic groups often share similar combinations of invasion traits. A post-hoc analysis suggests that combinations of traits characterizing successful invaders can be associated with invasion stages across taxa. Our findings suggest that there are no universal invasion traits which could explain the invasion success of all invaders, but that invaders are successful for different reasons which are represent-ed by different combinations of invasion traits across taxonomic groups.

AB - Invasion ecology tends to treat taxonomic groups separately. However, given that all invasive species go through the same stages of the invasion process (transport, escape, establishment, spread), it is likely that—across taxa—comparable traits help to success-fully complete this process ("invasion traits"). Perhaps not all invasive species have the same invasion traits, but different combinations of invasion traits can be found among invaders, corresponding to different possibilities to become a successful invader. These combinations of invasion traits might be linked to tax-onomic affiliation, but this is not necessarily the case. We created a global dataset with 201 invasive species from seven major taxonomic groups (animals, green plants, fungi, heterokonts, bacteria, red algae, alveol-ates) and 13 invasion traits that are applicable across all taxa. The dataset was analysed with cluster analysis to search for similarities in combinations of invasion traits. Three of the five clusters, comprising 60% of all species, contain several major taxonomic groups. While some invasion trait frequencies were significantly related to taxonomic affiliation, the results show that invasive species from different tax-onomic groups often share similar combinations of invasion traits. A post-hoc analysis suggests that combinations of traits characterizing successful invaders can be associated with invasion stages across taxa. Our findings suggest that there are no universal invasion traits which could explain the invasion success of all invaders, but that invaders are successful for different reasons which are represent-ed by different combinations of invasion traits across taxonomic groups.

KW - Biology

KW - alien species

KW - cluster analysis

KW - cross-taxonomic study

KW - Taxonomic bias

KW - invasion mechanisms

U2 - 10.7332/ise2015.3.1.dsc

DO - 10.7332/ise2015.3.1.dsc

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 3

SP - 1

EP - 13

JO - Immediate Science Ecology

JF - Immediate Science Ecology

SN - 1929-2201

ER -