ArticleGlobal change biology2025
Niche Dynamics of Alien Plant Species in Mediterranean Europe.
Article in Global change biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ensemble Niche Modelling Projects Net Suitability Gain and Eastward Range Expansion for the Namaqua Dove (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Global Patterns of Niche Changes in Alien Mammals: Potential Drivers and Significance for Invasion Projections.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Niche Dynamics of Alien Plant Species in Mediterranean Europe.Global change biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Humans have spread plants globally for millennia, inadvertently causing ecological disruptions. Apart from their negative effects, biological invasions provide a unique opportunity to study how species modify their niche when confronted with novel environments. Focusing on the Mediterranean Basin, we assessed (1) which traits influence niche dynamics, and (2) whether niche conservatism or niche shift promotes invasion success. We selected the 80 most widespread alien vascular plant species in Mediterranean Europe and compiled data on their distributions in their native and invaded ranges. We then tested how a species' residence time, biogeographic origin, dispersal ability, functional traits, and intraspecific trait variability (ITV) influence its niche dynamics following invasion. Using already published independent data, we finally assessed whether niche dynamics can explain different dimensions of invasion success (quantified as regional spread or local abundance). We found that niche shifts were common (71% of species) and were mostly driven by species failing to occupy all suitable environments in their invaded range (unfilling), regardless of residence time. Niche unfilling and niche expansion were more important in species with high intraspecific trait variability introduced from non-Mediterranean biomes (temperate or tropical). Niche expansion was also greater in species with long-distance dispersal, a narrow native niche, and bigger seeds. Interestingly, invasion success correlated more with a species' ability to conserve its niche and residence time than with niche expansion. Niche shifts were better predicted by species traits than residence time. For example, high adaptive and acclimatization potential (inferred from high intraspecific trait variability) favored niche shifts in general, and long-distance dispersal favored niche expansion. Understanding how these traits relate to niche dynamics is important since a species' ability to conserve and fill its niche is, in turn, a good predictor of invasion success.
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