Emery, S.M. and K.L. Gross.
Presented at the All Scientist Meeting (2002-10-04 )
Because of the strong negative impacts invasive species can have on native biodiversity and ecosystem function, it is important to be able to predict where non-natives are most likely to invade and thrive. Long term data sets provide a unique opportunity to study invasion dynamics in relation to changes in species diversity and productivity. A graduate student working group at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) is evaluating patterns of invasion across six LTER grassland sites as a function of diversity and productivity of those sites. For the KBS successional old field sites, we found that invasibility (number of new species colonizing a site) declined over time, but that invasion impact (biomass of invasive species) increased over time. Across all sites, we found that while high diversity sites are more likely to be invaded, low diversity sites may experience greater changes in ecosystem processes as a result of non-native species.
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