Inverse priority effects: The order and timing of removal of invasive species influence community reassembly

1. An ongoing restoration challenge is to recover native communities after the removal of invasive species. Because priority effects (i.e., the order and timing of species arrival) can strongly determine the trajectory of community assembly, their intentional manipulation is gaining attention to manage invasive plants and achieve restoration goals. Yet, ecologists and conservationists rarely consider how the order and timing of species removal inverse priority effect may impact future plant communities. 2. Here, we evaluated the dependence of community reassembly on inverse priority effects by experimentally removing the target invasives Sweetbriar rose (Rosa rubiginosa) and Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) in field and mesocosm communities. We manipulated removal order (rose-before-broom vs. broom-before-rose) and timing (simultaneously early vs. simultaneously late in the season). We performed a Hierarchical Modeling of Species Community to assess differences in community structure in...