Light variability typical of deciduous forests enhances the performance of non-native plants

Alien plant invasions in forests can severely threaten native biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Canopy closure in deciduous forests can cause variability in light levels, but light levels in forest edges and evergreen forests are constantly high and low, respectively. We tested how light conditions and light variability affect the invasiveness of alien plants by growing five pairs of invasive and noninvasive alien species under conditions of high, variable (with high light in the initial phase and low light in the latter phase of the experiment), and low light intensities. The total duration of the experiment was 200 days. The alien plants were grown singly or competed with a native deciduous or evergreen tree seedling. Overall, invasive plants produced marginally more biomass than noninvasive plants. From high to low (averaged across variable and low) light conditions, biomass of i..., , , ## Light variability typical of deciduous forests enhances the performance of non-native plants

This is the raw data showing the species information, treatments, biomass, and root mass fraction of the 10 invasive and noninvasive alien species.

## Description of the data and file structure

For species information, the species Latin name (species), family, invasive or noninvasive status (status), and life form are given. Treatments include light, forest, and competitor. Light and forest treatments are as follows: high light conditions simulating those at forest edge, constantly low light conditions simulating those in evergreen forest understories, and variable light conditions simulating those in deciduous forest understories. Competitor treatments include: competition with the native deciduous tree Koelreuteria paniculata (koe), competition with the native evergreen tree Koelreuteria Pinus massoniana (pinus), and no competition. For data, the leaf biomass (g), aboveground biomass (g)..., ,