INVASION project: Towards an integrative approach for the study of plant invasions on the Canary Islands

Abstract

One of the main threats to the conservation of biodiversity is human-mediated plant introductions. When alien species invade new territories, they can significantly modify the structure of native communities and ecosystem functioning. The study of alien-specific traits and their relationship with native communities is thought to inform us about the mechanisms that operate during the stages of naturalization and invasion. In this context, the Darwin Naturalization Conundrum (DNC) provides opposing hypotheses about the potential of alien species to invade natural communities. On the one hand, the "naturalization hypothesis" posits that alien species far related to native species should be more likely to invade due to niche partition or niche emptiness (biotic filtering). On the other hand, the "pre-adaptation hypothesis" proposes that close relativeness of alien species with native communities may facilitate establishment due to potential adaptations to similar environmental conditions (environmental filtering). In the present work, we focus on three of the main ecosystems (laurel forest, pine forest, and dry Euphorbia scrub) of the Canary Islands across Tenerife and Gran Canaria islands to study invasive processes under the framework of the DNC. Our main objective is to deepen our knowledge of the mechanisms of invasion in oceanic islands. We integrate ecological, functional, and phylogenetic approaches to explicitly test the DNC hypotheses posited by Darwin. Our preliminary results highlight that functional relatedness between exotic species and native communities, together with species richness, plays a role in establishment and invasion success.