Alien plants invade more phylogenetically clustered community types and cause even stronger clustering

Abstract

Our findings support the hypothesis that relatedness of invaders to native species promotes invasion because of their shared adaptations to the same environments. Alien species more strongly invade community types that are phylogenetically clustered, and because they tend to be related to native species, invaded community types become even more clustered.

Keywords

• Archaeophyte
• biological invasions
• neophyte
• phylogenetic diversity
• species pool
• vegetation type