DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4260b
title: Data from: Commonness and rarity of alien and native plant species – the relative roles of intraspecific competition and plant–soil feedback

description: The success of invasive alien and common native species may be explained
 by the same underlying mechanisms. Differences in intraspecific
 competition as well as differences in plant–soil feedback have been put
 forward as potential determinants of plant success. We teased apart the
 relative roles of competition and plant–soil feedback in a greenhouse
 experiment with 30 common and rare alien and native species from nine
 plant families. We tested whether plant biomass decreased less for common
 than rare species, regardless of origin, when grown at higher relative
 frequencies (1, 3 or 6 out of 9 plants per pot) in a community and in soil
 previously conditioned by the same species at different frequencies (0, 1,
 3 or 6 out of 9 plants per pot) in an orthogonal design for these two
 factors. Plant survival decreased slightly, but non-significantly, for all
 species when grown in soil previously occupied by conspecifics. Among
 surviving plants, we found a decrease in biomass with increasing
 intraspecific competition across all species (regardless of origin or
 commonness), and alien species were more negatively affected by previous
 high plant frequency than native species, but only marginally
 significantly so. Our findings suggest that, while intraspecific
 competition limits individual biomass in a density-dependent manner, these
 effects do not depend on species origin or commonness. Notably, alien
 species but not natives showed a decrease in performance when grown in
 soil pre-conditioned with a higher frequency of conspecifics. In
 conclusion, soil-borne pathogen accumulation might be weak in its effects
 on plant performance compared to intraspecific competition, with neither
 being clearly linked to species commonness.
description: Mueller et al.
 Commonness and rarity of alien and native plant species data
 fileThe file contains the
 full data set of: Commonness and rarity of alien and native plant species
 - The roles of intraspecific competition and plant-soil feedback, Müller,
 Gregor, van Kleunen, Mark, Dawson, Wayne The columns: ID: simple row
 number column GH: greenhouse (A,B,C) Table: Table number within a
 greenhouse Phase 1: Target species planted in phase 1 Phase1 code: Code
 used for pots in the greenhouse wt_communityPh1: Total weight of the
 community plants in phase 1 wt_target_perC_Ph1: Per captia weight of the
 target plants in phase 1 wt_totalPh1: Total biomass per pot in phase 1
 initial_phase1_density: Initial planting densities of target plants in
 phase 1 initial_phleum ph1: initial planting density of Phleum plants in
 phase 1 Phase 2: Target species planted in phase 2 Phase 2 code: Code for
 the respective pot initial_dens_ph2: Initial planting density of target
 plants in phase2 Initial_phleum_ph2: Initial planting density of Phleum
 plants in phase 2 GH4: Indicator wether pots were shifted in a fourth
 greenhouse at the end X: x coordinate of pot on a greenhouse table Y: y
 coordinate of a pot on a greenhouse table Status: status of species
 (native, alien) in Germany Family: family of each species Commonness:
 number of grid cells in the floraweb database that a species occurs in
 wt_target_ph2: weight of the target species in phase 2 Nbr_Targets_ph_2:
 Number of targets in phase 2 phase1_density: Planting densities of targets
 in phase 1 wt_galium_ph2: weight of Galium plants in phase 2
 Nbr_Galium_ph_2: Number of Galium plants in phase 2 wt_phleum_ph2: weight
 of Phelum plants in phase 2 Nbr__Phleum-Ph_2: Number of Phleum plants in
 phase 2 wt_ranunculus_ph2: weight of Ranunculus plants in phase 2
 Nbr_Ranunculus_ph2: Number of Ranunculus plants in phase 2
 wt_total_restcommunity_ph2: weight of the restcommunity (Phleum
 +Galium+Ranunculus) Nbr_plants_totalpot: total number of plants per pot
 (target+community) perC_wt_targetph2: Per Capita weight target in phase 2
 survivors: number of targets surviving until harvest in ph 2
 deathbintarget: binary survival to select only pots with full set of
 target species in ph2DatafileOikos.txt