Evolutionary Niche dyNamics of Invasive Species (ENNIS)

Background

Ecologists seek to understand the factors that lead some exotic plant species to become ecologically dominant and widespread. This attention is justified because these invasive species can alter community composition, impact ecosystem function, affect species’ evolutionary trajectories, and lead to species extinctions. Nonetheless, finding characteristics that are consistently shared by invasive species is difficult. The climatic niche of plants (the climatic conditions under which population growth is positive) potentially facilitates plant invasions. Some invasive plants have native ranges that span large latitudinal ranges. Others have experienced shifts of climatic niche during the invasion process.  How is the tendency towards invasiveness influenced by the evolutionary history of a species?

The Goal

The goal of the ENNIS project is to contribute to understanding of how the evolutionary history of a group of plant species (i.e. a genus) influences whether species become invasive in a new area to which they are introduced.

The Approach

The work focuses on collection of (a) ecological, species occurrence, and climate data that are used to describe the distribution-climate relationships of species, (b) data on species functional traits, and (c) existing sequence data for phylogeny reconstructions. We extract species distribution data from online databases and a wide array of other data sources.  We obtain molecular data directly from GenBank. Plant tissue for additional sequencing will be collected at national herbaria and botanical gardens. We quantify niche optima and limits using species distribution models and we construct phylogenetic trees of groups that include invasive species.  We model evolution of the climate niche on the phylogeny of the focal genus. 

Significance of the Project

This research will help to understand how niche shifts contribute to niche evolution within genera, affect species geographical distributions, and influence the potential for invasiveness. The project will help to identify potentially invasive species before they become introduced. By helping us to understand the evolutionary history of the niche in genera that include invasive species, this research will help to predict the capacity for invasive species to expand beyond the climatic limits in their native ranges.  Finally, understanding evolutionary processes that enable species to expand into new environments will improve confidence in the use of species distribution models to predict the potential distributions of invasive species.

Further information

Project proposal (PDF)

• Peter B. Pearman
  

• Nicolas Salamin lab
  
• Anna Kostikova, Ph.D. student