Data from: Plant competition as a mechanism of invasion on islands: revisiting the conclusions of Kuebbing and Nuñez (2016)

Identifying the mechanisms underlying invasive plant establishment and native plant decline remains a central goal in ecology, particularly for biodiversity hotspots such as islands. We re-analyzed a previously published meta-dataset to test the prediction that neighbor effects are stronger on islands vs. continents because island plants are weaker competitors. Although we detected marginally stronger neighbor effects on islands than continents, this was due, at least in part, to stronger competition among native species. An absence of studies testing neighbor effects between native vs. invasive plants on islands prevents a rigorous test for competition effects on islands, highlighting an important knowledge gap.

探明外来植物定植与本土植物衰退背后的机制，始终是生态学研究的核心目标之一，对于岛屿这类生物多样性热点区域而言尤为如此。本研究重新分析了一套已发表的元数据集（meta-dataset），以验证如下预测：相较于大陆生境，岛屿上的邻体效应（neighbor effects）更强，其原因在于岛屿植物的竞争能力相对更弱。尽管我们观测到岛屿上的邻体效应较大陆区域略强，但这一现象至少部分源于本土物种间更强的竞争作用。目前尚无针对岛屿上本土植物与外来植物之间邻体效应的相关研究，这使得我们无法严格检验岛屿生境中的竞争效应，也凸显了这一重要的研究空白。