DOI: 10.5061/dryad.jsxksn0m2
title: Light variability typical of deciduous forests enhances the performance of non-native plants

description: Alien plant invasions in forests can severely threaten native biodiversity
 and ecosystem functioning. Canopy closure in deciduous
 forests can cause variability in light levels,
 but light levels in forest edges and evergreen forests are
 constantly high and low, respectively. We tested how light conditions and
 light variability affect the
 invasiveness of alien plants by
 growing five pairs of invasive and noninvasive alien
 species under conditions of high,
 variable (with high light in the initial phase and low
 light in the latter phase of the experiment), and low light
 intensities. The total duration of the experiment was 200
 days. The alien plants were grown singly or
 competed with a native deciduous or evergreen tree
 seedling. Overall, invasive plants produced marginally more
 biomass than noninvasive plants. From high to low (averaged
 across variable and low) light conditions, biomass of invasive plants
 decreased less than that of noninvasive species (-26.7%
 versus -37.7%), indicating that invaders may have a greater capacity to
 invade forests than noninvasive plants. From low to variable light
 conditions, biomass of invasive plants increased more than that of
 noninvasive species (63.7% versus 48.9%), indicating that the advantage of
 invaders over noninvasive species is most
 pronounced under variable light conditions. Competition with the
 deciduous tree reduced biomass more for the noninvasive plants
 than for the invasive plants, indicating that interspecific competition
 may further explain why some alien species can invade while
 others cannot. Our results indicate that high light
 early in the season benefited more for the invaders, and reduced
 irradiance from the middle of the experiment limited growth of
 the noninvasive plants more than that of the invasive plants. Together,
 our results suggest that variable light levels, simulating
 those in deciduous forests or caused
 by disturbances, may promote the invasiveness
 of alien plants.
description: ## Light variability typical of deciduous forests enhances the performance
 of non-native plants This is the raw data showing the species information,
 treatments, biomass, and root mass fraction of the 10 invasive and
 noninvasive alien species. ## Description of the data and file structure
 For species information, the species Latin name (species), family,
 invasive or noninvasive status (status), and life form are given.
 Treatments include light, forest, and competitor. Light and forest
 treatments are as follows: high light conditions simulating those at
 forest edge, constantly low light conditions simulating those in evergreen
 forest understories, and variable light conditions simulating those in
 deciduous forest understories. Competitor treatments include: competition
 with the native deciduous tree Koelreuteria paniculata (koe), competition
 with the native evergreen tree Koelreuteria Pinus massoniana (pinus), and
 no competition. For data, the leaf biomass (g), aboveground biomass (g),
 belowground biomass (g), total biomass (g), and root biomass fraction
 (RMF) are given. When no data is available, NA is shown. Finally, the
 information of experimental block (block) and the light plot is also
 given.