Invasive plants have greater growth than co-occurring natives in live soil subjected to a drought-rewetting treatment

Although several studies indicate that invasive plant species respond more negatively to drought than native plant species, little remains understood of how and whether drought-rewetting events may affect growth of invasive and co-occurring native plant species both directly and indirectly through soil microorganisms. In a fully crossed factorial design, we grew individuals of four congeneric pairs of invasive and native plant species in 2.5 L pots that contained live or sterilized field soil under one of three drought treatments: no-drought, drought, drought-rewetting. Results show that drought caused a significantly greater decline in total biomass of invasive plants than that of native plants regardless of the presence of live soil microorganisms. However, total biomass of the invasive plants exhibited a greater recovery from drought following rewetting than did that of the native plant species. Moreover, the recovery from drought in invasive species tended to be stronger in live soi..., In a fully crossed factorial design, we grew individuals of four congeneric pairs of invasive and native plant species in 2.5 L pots that contained live or sterilized field soil under one of three drought treatments: no-drought, drought, drought-rewetting. We collected data from this control experiment.,