Diverse ecological strategies increase invasion resistance in an experimental grassland restoration

Understanding how the characteristics of native plant communities influence invasion is a pressing question, with implications for both theory and management. For decades, the primary native community characteristic used in tests of biotic resistance was species richness. However, previous studies have demonstrated that evolutionary history and functional traits both shape the invasion process, as ecological theory predicts. Theoretically, restoration and land management projects would benefit from designing seed mixtures around maximizing resistance to invasion. However, there is little empirical evidence on the importance of evolutionary diversity for management and still less guidance available to practitioners on how to apply these ecological theories effectively. We sought to empirically test how several native community characteristics (phylogenetic diversity, functional diversity, phylogenetic relatedness, and mean trait values) affected the survival of three introduced invasive ..., , , # Data from: Diverse ecological strategies increase invasion resistance in an experimental grassland restoration

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2jm63xt0j](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2jm63xt0j)

## Description of the data and file structure

We planted an experimental prairie restoration with 72 diversity plots, established from plugs. For each of the 127 species included in the diversity experiments, we also established two monoculture plots. We experimentally invaded these plots with three species: Rumex crispus, Oenothera biennis, and Daucus carota. We tracked the survival and growth of these species over two years. We also collected trait data from the experiment to fill in gaps for species which were missing trait values in existing databases, including all three of the invaders. 

For all flowering data, a 0 indicates the plant was not flowering, a 1 indicates the plant was flowering. For survival data, a 0 indicates mortality, a 1 indicates the plant survived.

For all data, N...,