Differential responses to global change of aquatic and terrestrial invasive species: evidences from a meta‐analysis

Abstract

AbstractIncreases in carbon dioxide (CO2), temperature, and precipitation can have varying effects on environmental conditions and resources affecting species’ performance and overall function of native and non‐native species that may influence future biodiversity. More attention is being focused on how climate change impacts the performance of co‐occurring native and introduced species. No synthesis has solely examined how invasive plant and animal species perform under climate change across both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. We asked the following questions: (1) How will combined and single climate change factors influence the performance of non‐native species? (2) Which habitat types are more affected by climate factors in a combined or single manner? (3) What guilds/functional groups, within aquatic vs. terrestrial habitats, are more impacted by climate factors? To better understand this, we conducted a meta‐analysis examining the relative influence climate change factors (carbon dioxide (CO2)/acidification, temperature, precipitation) have on invasive species’ performance. Our results indicate that global change factors had an overall increased performance on invasive species in terrestrial habitats with an opposite effect observed in aquatic habitats. Plant functional groups were positively affected, whereas animal guilds were generally negatively impacted by global changes. Our findings suggest that while invasive taxa are affected differently by global changes, responses are confounded by habitat type, and, therefore, to fully understand global change impacts on invasive taxa, increased representation of animal studies in terrestrial systems and plants in aquatic systems is needed.