Data from: The role of life history traits in mammalian invasion success

Why some organisms become invasive when introduced into novel regions while others fail to even establish is a fundamental question in ecology. Barriers to success are expected to filter species at each stage along the invasion pathway. No study to date, however, has investigated how species traits associate with success from introduction to spread at a large spatial scale in any group. Using the largest data set of mammalian introductions at the global scale and recently developed phylogenetic comparative methods, we show that human-mediated introductions considerably bias which species have the opportunity to become invasive, as highly productive mammals with longer reproductive lifespans are far more likely to be introduced. Subsequently, greater reproductive output and higher introduction effort are associated with success at both the establishment and spread stages. High productivity thus supports population growth and invasion success, with barriers at each invasion stage filtering species with progressively greater fecundity.

为何部分生物在被引入非原生区域后会成为入侵物种，而另一些却连种群建立都无法完成，这是生态学领域的核心基础问题。入侵路径的各个阶段均存在成功障碍，会对物种进行逐级筛选。然而迄今为止，尚无研究在任一生物类群中，于大空间尺度下探究物种性状与从引入到扩散的入侵成功之间的关联。我们依托全球规模最大的哺乳动物引入数据集与新近开发的系统发育比较方法（phylogenetic comparative methods），研究发现人类介导的引入活动极大地偏向了具备入侵潜力的物种：繁殖力较强、生殖寿命更长的哺乳动物被引入的概率显著更高。后续阶段中，更高的繁殖产出与更大的引入投入，均与种群建立及扩散阶段的入侵成功显著相关。由此可见，高繁殖力可助力种群增长与入侵成功，而入侵各阶段的障碍会逐级筛选出繁殖力更强的物种。