Data from: Functional traits mediate the interactive effects of climate and human disturbance on non-native plant diversity

Global climate change and expanding human disturbance are reshaping plant
invasion dynamics. While both climatic variables and human disturbance
independently affect invasions, their interactive effects, particularly as
mediated by plant functional traits, remain underexplored. To address this
gap, we leveraged continental-scale organismal data from the National
Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) to examine how trait differences
between native and non-native species interact with climate and human
disturbance to shape non-native plant diversity. Our findings show that
non-native species diversity peaks at intermediate temperatures.
Furthermore, human disturbance interacted strongly with precipitation and
aridity: high disturbance increased non-native diversity in
low-precipitation plots and stabilized diversity across aridity gradients.
Functional trait differences between non-native and native plants
significantly mediated these environmental interactions. Specifically,
human disturbance promoted the diversity of non-native species with less
resource-acquisitive traits (e.g., lower plant height or SLA than native
species) in humid environments, while resource-acquisitive non-native
species (e.g., higher plant height or SLA than native species)
consistently exhibited higher diversity in arid regions. These findings
offer insights into how trait-mediated interactions between climate and
disturbance shape non-native plant diversity, contributing to improved
prediction and management of invasions under global environmental change.