Abiotic and biotic contexts shape the effect of disturbance on non-native plant invasion

Making predictions about when and where a given mechanism of invasion will
be weak or strong is crucial for the effective management of non-native
species. Despite the importance of disturbance on invasion, our
understanding of how variation in abiotic and/or biotic conditions may
modify the disturbance-invasion relationship is scarce. Here, we aimed to
evaluate how abiotic (soil type) and biotic (tree and shrub cover)
contexts affect the disturbance-invasion relationship in disturbed and
nearby non-disturbed communities in the semi-arid open forest of central
Argentina (ca. 36° S) using field sampling. We found that abiotic context
modulated non-native species success in disturbed communities, whereas
both abiotic and biotic context modulated success in nearby non-disturbed
communities. These findings suggest that the plant invasion-disturbance
relationship is context-dependent. Our results hint at the possibility
that the significance of disturbance in predicting invasion might diminish
as the importance of abiotic filters increases.