Data from: Phylogenetic and functional distinctiveness explain alien plant population responses to competition

Several invasion hypotheses predict a positive association between
phylogenetic and functional distinctiveness of aliens and their
performance, leading to the idea that distinct aliens compete less with
their resident communities. However, synthetic pattern relationships
between distinctiveness and alien performance and direct tests of
competition as the driving mechanism have not been forthcoming. This is
likely because different patterns are observed at different spatial
grains, because functional trait and phylogenetic information are often
incomplete, and due to the need for competition experiments that measure
demographic responses across a variety of alien species that vary in their
distinctiveness. We conduct a competitor removal experiment and
parameterize matrix population and integral projection models for 14 alien
plant species. More novel aliens compete less strongly with co-occurring
species in their community, but these results dissipate at a larger
spatial grain of investigation. Further, we find that functional traits
used in conjunction with phylogeny improve our ability to explain
competitive responses. Our investigation shows that competition is an
important mechanism underlying the differential success of alien species.