Niche dynamics of alien plant species in Mediterranean Europe

Aim: Humans have spread plants globally for millennia, inadvertently causing ecological disruptions. However, biological invasions also provide a unique opportunity to study the process of niche dynamics, through which species adapt their niche when confronted with novel environments.  Focusing on the Mediterranean basin, we assessed 1) which traits favour niche dynamics, and 2) whether niche conservatism or niche shift promotes invasion success.
Location: Mediterranean Europe and the World. 
Results: We found that niche shifts were common (71% of species) and were mostly driven by species failing to occupy all suitable environments of their invaded range (unfilling), regardless of residence time. Niche unfilling and niche expansion were more important in species with high ITV, introduced from non-mediterranean biomes (temperate or tropical). Niche expansion was also greater for species that can disperse further, and have bigger seeds and a narrow native niche. Interestingly, ..., We selected the 85 most widespread alien vascular plants in Mediterranean Europe and compiled data on their distribution in their native and invaded ranges. We then tested how a species' residence time, biogeographic origin, dispersal ability, functional traits and intraspecific trait variability (ITV) influence its niche dynamics following invasion. Using already published independent data, we finally assessed whether niche dynamics can explain different dimensions of invasion success (such as regional spread or local abundance)., , # Data from: Niche dynamics of alien plant species in Mediterranean Europe

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cc2fqz6gc](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cc2fqz6gc)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data were collected for the paper \"Niche dynamics of alien plant species in Mediterranean Europe\". Here, you can find the original data and code used in the analyses — shared for the purpose of open science. For this work, we selected the 80 most widespread alien vascular plants in Mediterranean Europe and compiled data on their distribution in their native and invaded ranges (GBIF data  [https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.mdkwsz](https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.mdkwsz&data=[e-mail]%257C2218fbcd78a642b5078f08ddc3b92c7c%257C6e725c29763a4f5081f22e254f0133c8%257C1%257C0%257C638881922298066298%257CUnknown%257CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ==%257C0...,