Abstract
To understand what makes some species successful invaders, it is critical to quantify performance differences between native and introduced regions, and among populations occupying a broad range of environmental conditions within each region. However, these data are not available even for the world’s most notorious invasive species. Here we introduce the Global Garlic Mustard Field Survey, a coordinated distributed field survey to collect performance data and germplasm from a single invasive species: garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) across its entire distribution using minimal resources. We chose this species for its ecological impacts, prominence in ecological studies of invasion success, simple life history, and several genetic and life history attributes that make it amenable to experimental study. We developed a standardised field survey protocol to estimate population size (area) and density, age structure, plant size and fecundity, as well as damage by herbivores and pathogens in each population, and to collect representative seed samples. Across four years and with contributions from 164 academic and non-academic participants from 16 countries in North America and Europe thus far, we have collected 45,788 measurements and counts of 137,811 plants from 383 populations and seeds from over 5,000 plants. All field data and seed resources will be curated for release to the scientific community. Our goal is to establish A. petiolata as a model species for plant invasion biology and to encourage large collaborative studies of other invasive species.
Highlights
Keywords Alliaria petiolata, citizen science, model system, plant invasion, research network. How is it that invasive species, which are introduced to novel geographical regions where they lack an adaptive evolutionary history, are able to establish and proliferate? Since investigation into this topic was launched over a half-century ago (Elton 1958; Baker and Stebbins 1965), research on this question has expanded rapidly, leading to a large and growing number of ecological and evolutionary hypotheses (Sakai et al 2001; Facon et al 2006; Catford et al 2009; Gurevitch et al 2011; Jeschke et al 2012)
Biological hypotheses of invasion success generally fall into one of two categories: (i) biogeographical differences between native and introduced ranges and (ii) functional traits that differ between species or higher-order phylogenetic groups (Colautti et al 2014)
A challenge for ecology is to evaluate these hypotheses for individual invasions, eliminate those unlikely to explain invasion success, quantify the relative importance of the remaining hypotheses and identify context dependencies that allow for a robust general theory of invasion success
Summary
How is it that invasive species, which are introduced to novel geographical regions where they lack an adaptive evolutionary history, are able to establish and proliferate? Since investigation into this topic was launched over a half-century ago (Elton 1958; Baker and Stebbins 1965), research on this question has expanded rapidly, leading to a large and growing number of ecological and evolutionary hypotheses (Sakai et al 2001; Facon et al 2006; Catford et al 2009; Gurevitch et al 2011; Jeschke et al 2012). Biological hypotheses of invasion success generally fall into one of two categories: (i) biogeographical differences between native and introduced ranges and (ii) functional traits that differ between species or higher-order phylogenetic groups (Colautti et al 2014). Invasive species may be the subset of species from native source pools that possess particular ecological or evolutionary characteristics that promote introduction, establishment, spread and competitive displacement of natives (Pyšek and Richardson 2007; van Kleunen et al 2010). These hypotheses are not exhaustive or mutually exclusive and different species may be invasive for different reasons (Mack et al 2000). A challenge for ecology is to evaluate these hypotheses for individual invasions, eliminate those unlikely to explain invasion success, quantify the relative importance of the remaining hypotheses and identify context dependencies that allow for a robust general theory of invasion success
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
