Data from: Using multiple traits to assess the potential of introduced and native vines to proliferate in a tropical region

Predicting the invasive potential of introduced species remains an ongoing challenge due to the multiple interacting regional and global processes that facilitate the introduction and proliferation of alien species. This may be particularly true in regions where native species are increasingly reported as expanding and impacting ecosystems in ways indistinguishable from alien ones. Current approaches to assess the invasive potential of plants may be limited by the choice of traits used and the exclusion of native species. To overcome these limitations, we develop a novel approach that focuses on all species—native and alien—within a functional group of plants to predict their proliferation status. Our approach relied on the development of an extensive database of extrinsic and intrinsic traits for Puerto Rican vines with the goal of generating a predictive model of vine proliferation status. We test three hypotheses linking origin, extrinsic and intrinsic traits, and proliferation status. We found that the origin of proliferating vines was associated with only one out of seven traits, namely plant use. We also found that proliferation status was associated with all but two traits, namely life span and climbing mechanism. Finally, a classification tree analysis identified five variables as good predictors of proliferation status and used them to split the species into six groups characterized by a unique suite of traits, three of them included proliferating species. The development of tools to identify potential proliferating species is critical for management and conservation purposes. Tools that can minimize biases and make predictions based on trait data easily obtainable are particularly needed in regions with a high taxonomic and functional diversity, and with limited ecological knowledge of individual species. In addition, these tools should be capable of incorporating native species since an increasing number of native species are behaving like invasive aliens.

预测引入物种（introduced species）的入侵潜力始终是一项长期挑战，因诸多相互作用的区域与全球过程会推动外来物种（alien species）的引入与扩散。在本地物种不断被报道出现扩张，并以与外来物种难以区分的方式影响生态系统的区域，这一挑战尤为突出。当前评估植物入侵潜力的方法，可能受限于所选用的功能性状类型，且因未纳入本地物种而存在局限性。为克服这些局限，本研究提出一种全新方法：聚焦植物功能群（functional group）内的所有物种（包括本地与外来物种），以此预测其扩散状态。该方法依托针对波多黎各藤本植物构建的涵盖外源性状（extrinsic traits）与内源性状（intrinsic traits）的大型数据库，旨在构建藤本植物扩散状态的预测模型。本研究验证了三类关联物种起源、外源与内源性状以及扩散状态的假说。研究结果显示，具扩散能力的藤本植物的起源仅与7类性状中的1类相关，即植物用途（plant use）。此外，研究还发现扩散状态与除两类性状外的所有性状均相关，这两类性状分别为寿命（life span）与攀援机制（climbing mechanism）。最终，分类树分析（classification tree analysis）筛选出5个可有效预测扩散状态的变量，并据此将物种划分为6个以独特性状组合为特征的类群，其中3个类群包含具扩散能力的物种。开发用于识别潜在扩散物种的工具，对物种管理与保护工作而言至关重要。在分类学与功能多样性较高、且单个物种生态学知识储备有限的区域，尤为需要能够最小化偏差、并基于易获取的性状数据开展预测的工具。此外，由于越来越多的本地物种正表现出类似外来入侵物种的特性，此类工具应当能够纳入本地物种进行分析。