Biological invasions are widely acknowledged as a major threat to global biodiversity. Species from all major taxonomic groups have become invasive. The range of impacts of invasive taxa and the overall magnitude of the threat is increasing. Plants comprise the biggest and best-studied group of invasive species. There is a growing debate; however, regarding the nature of the alien plant threat-...

1. During the last centuries many alien species have established and spread in new regions, where some of them cause large ecological and economic problems. As one of the main explanations of the spread of alien species, the enemy-release hypothesis is widely accepted and frequently serves as justification for biological control. 2. We used a global fungus–plant host distribution data set for 1...

An explanation for successful invasion is that invasive alien species sustain less pressure from natural enemies than co-occurring native species. Using meta-analysis, we examined whether invasive species: (1) incur less damage, (2) exhibit better performance in the presence of enemies, and (3) tolerate damage more than native species. Invasive alien species did not incur less damage than nativ...

The invasion of non-native plant species is one of the greatest threats to natural ecosystems, and oceanic islands are especially susceptible to this threat. Fire, as a disturbance factor, has been found to promote non-native species invasion and fire intensity is one of the variables determining the severity of invasions. This study was designed to determine the impact of non-native species in...

Noise pollution is one of the most important features of architectural spaces having a great impact on the comfort of residents. Therefore, providing appropriate and sustainable solutions for noise pollution control is essential. Today, with the use of man-made synthetic materials, it has been tried to improve the sound performance of buildings. The purpose of this study is to show the characte...

The flammability of plant leaves influences the spread of fire through vegetation. Exotic plants invading native vegetation may increase the spread of bushfires if their leaves are more flammable than native leaves. We compared fresh-leaf and dry-leaf flammability (time to ignition) between 52 native and 27 exotic plant species inhabiting dry sclerophyll forest. We found that mean time to ignit...

Understanding the ecological determinants of biological invasions is a key issue for predicting the spread of exotic species over broad geographical extents. The goal of this study was to investigate independent and combined effects of climatic and human-related factors on native and exotic plant species richness in Great Britain. We used multiple and partial regression techniques and spatial m...

*To understand prerequisites of biological invasions, it is imperative to know whether species have traits that pre-adapt them to become invasive elsewhere. However, few experimental studies have explicitly tested this by comparing traits between invasive and noninvasive species in their native range instead of in the nonnative range. *We used native plant material of 14 European congeneric pai...

Conservation biological control involving the polyphagous aphid parasitoid, Aphidius colemani Viereck, may include provisioning resources from a variety of plant sources. The fitness of adult A. colemani was enhanced with the provision of food resources such as floral nectar from a range of both native and introduced plant species and aphid honeydew under laboratory conditions. However, enhance...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY The ecological consequences of plant competition have frequently been tested, but the evolutionary outcomes of these interactions have gone largely unexplored. The study of species invasions can make an important contribution to this field of research by allowing us to watch ecological and evolutionary processes unfold as a novel species is integrated into a plant community...