Abstract
In recent years, research in invasion biology has focused increasing attention on understanding the role of phenology in shaping plant invasions. Multiple studies have found non-native species that tend to flower distinctly early or late in the growing season, advance more with warming or have shifted earlier with climate change compared with native species. This growing body of literature has focused on patterns of phenological differences, but there is a need now for mechanistic studies of how phenology contributes to invasions. To do this, however, requires understanding how phenology fits within complex functional trait relationships. Towards this goal, we review recent literature linking phenology with other functional traits, and discuss the role of phenology in mediating how plants experience disturbance and stress-via climate, herbivory and competition-across the growing season. Because climate change may alter the timing and severity of stress and disturbance in many systems, it could provide novel opportunities for invasion-depending upon the dominant climate controller of the system, the projected climate change, and the traits of native and non-native species. Based on our current understanding of plant phenological and growth strategies-especially rapid growing, early-flowering species versus later-flowering species that make slower-return investments in growth-we project optimal periods for invasions across three distinct systems under current climate change scenarios. Research on plant invasions and phenology within this predictive framework would provide a more rigorous test of what drives invader success, while at the same time testing basic plant ecological theory. Additionally, extensions could provide the basis to model how ecosystem processes may shift in the future with continued climate change.
Highlights
Understanding the forces that allow species to invade established communities is a central goal of ecology (Elton 1958) and critical to mitigating impacts of invasive species (Levine et al 2003)
Invasive species are predicted to increase both in abundance and in spatial distribution (IPCC Core Writing Team et al 2007; Bradley et al 2010)
As increasing research builds to test and advance this framework, resource managers will in turn need to evaluate how they may use phenology in their decision making
Summary
Understanding the forces that allow species to invade established communities is a central goal of ecology (Elton 1958) and critical to mitigating impacts of invasive species (Levine et al 2003). Further work showed that the longer leaf lifespan of the non-native species enabled a greater timeintegrated nutrient-use efficiency (Heberling and Fridley 2013), and, coupled with high rates of nutrient uptake the following spring, provides a mechanism by which the unique phenology of non-native species, compared with the native community, could promote invasion If these non-native species in eastern North America do gain a large benefit from occupying an open lateseason temporal niche, even while losing tissue to frost, climate change could further increase their success.
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