Global environmental changes can create novel habitats, promoting the growth of alien plants that often exhibit broad environmental tolerance and high phenotypic plasticity. However, the mechanisms underlying these growth promotory effects are unknown at present. Here, we conducted a phylogenetically controlled meta-analysis using data from 111 published studies encompassing the responses of 12...

Seed dispersal is a key determinant of species distribution, although it still unclear how contributes to assembly in plant communities. We linked patterns seed coexisting investigate the role process. focused on 19 foredune community, classified as “foredune foundation species”, “semi-fixed dune species,” and “alien species”. The number seeds dispersed by was monitored monthly 25 plots for 12 ...

In the Mediterranean basin, the globally increasing temperatures are expected to be accompanied by longer heat waves. Commonly assumed to benefit cold-limited invasive alien species, these climatic changes may also change their feeding preferences, especially in the case of omnivorous ectotherms. We investigated heat wave effects on diet choice, growth and energy reserves in the invasive red sw...

Variability in the cultivated germplasm for economic traits such as resistance to rice tungro virus, sheathblight, yellow stem borer, drought and salt tolerance is limited. This necessitated search for the genes in secondary and tertiary gene pool of genus Oryza. Fortunately, wild species are an important reservoir ofuseful genes for resistance to major disease, pest and tolerance t...

The European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN) aims to facilitate the exploration of alien species information in Europe, and is recognized as the information system supporting European Union Member States in the implementation of the recently published Invasive Alien Species Regulation. In this paper, we present the role and activities of the EASIN Editorial Board (EB), which is respon...

Effective management of invading alien plants in natural and semi-natural systems is imperative if we are to prevent enormous impacts. An integrated approach involving the combined use of a range of methods is usually necessary to control invasive alien plants effectively. The various methods that are available are usually classified as: mechanical methods (felling, removing of invading alien p...

Predicting the invasive potential of introduced species remains an ongoing challenge due to the multiple interacting regional and global processes that facilitate the introduction and proliferation of alien species. This may be particularly true in regions where native species are increasingly reported as expanding and impacting ecosystems in ways indistinguishable from alien ones. Current appr...

The success of European plant species as aliens worldwide is thought to reflect their association with human-disturbed environments. However, an explicit test including all human-made, seminatural and natural habitat types of Europe, and their contributions as donor habitats of naturalized species to the rest of the globe, has been missing. Here we combine two databases, the European Vegetation...

The objective of this work was to compare and contrast the patterns of alien plant invasions in the world's five mediterranean-climate regions (MCRs). We expected landscape age and disturbance history to have bearing on levels of invasion. We assembled a database on naturalized alien plant taxa occurring in natural and semi-natural terrestrial habitats of all five regions (specifically Spain, I...