Predicting invasion success: a basic framework using plant functional trait.

摘要

Looking for important traits tliat could predict species invasions is a major goal in ecology. Universal traits, i.e. traits uniquely related to invasion are rare. The relative importance of particular traits can change depending on the local context. Recent advances in functional community ecology have shown that simple morphological or eco-physiological plant fimctional traits (PFTs) can be successfully related to species success along large ecological gradients. PFTs usually co-vary along axes ofspecialisation and independent axes define an n dimensional trait space describing species trait niche. Based on this theory, we hypothesised that the identification of axes of specialisation among traits for invasive species might be the key to explaintheir success in new environments. Traits related to these axes can be used as fimctional markers to predict invasion patterns. We tested this basic framework for 12 exotic grass species found on Banks Peninsula, New Zealand, using a large data set (1340 botanical records).