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 filterin...

为何部分生物被引入非原生区域后会演变为入侵物种，而另一些甚至无法完成种群建立，这是生态学领域的基础性核心问题。学界普遍认为，入侵路径的各个阶段均会通过成功障碍对物种施加筛选作用。然而迄今为止，尚无研究在任意生物类群中，于大空间尺度下探究物种性状如何与从引种到扩散的入侵成功过程相关联。本研究依托全球规模最大的哺乳动物引种数据集，并采用新近开发的系统发育比较方法（phylogenetic comparative methods），结果显示：人为介导的引种活动极大地偏向了具备入侵潜力的物种——繁殖力旺盛、生殖寿命更长的哺乳动物被引入的概率显著更高。在后续阶段中，更高的繁殖产出与更强的引种投入，均与种群建立和扩散阶段的入侵成功显著相关。因此，高繁殖力有助于种群增长与入侵成功，而入侵各阶段的障碍会筛选...