DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4j0zpc8jq
title: Dominant species establishment may influence invasion resistance more than phylogenetic or functional diversity

description: Phylogenetic and functional diversity are theorized to increase invasion
 resistance. Experimentally testing whether plant communities higher in
 these components of diversity are less invasible is an important step for
 guiding restoration designs. To investigate how phylogenetic and
 functional diversity of vegetation affect invasion resistance in a
 restoration setting, we used experimental prairie restoration plots. The
 experiment crossed three levels of phylogenetic diversity with two levels
 of functional diversity while species richness was held constant. We
 allowed invaders to colonize plots; these included native species from
 neighboring plots and non-native invasive species from a surrounding old
 field. We tested if invader biomass was influenced by phylogenetic and
 functional diversity, and phylogenetic and hierarchical trait distances
 between invaders and planted species. We binned each invader into three
 categories: native species from neighboring experimental plots
 (site-specific invaders); native species not part of the experimental
 species pool (native invaders); or non-native species (non-native
 invaders). Counter to expectation, both non-native and native invaders
 became more abundant in more phylogenetically diverse plots. However,
 plots with higher abundance of planted Asteraceae, a dominant family of
 the tallgrass prairie, had lower invader biomass for both native and
 non-native invaders. We also found that hierarchical trait differences
 shaped invasion. The species that became most abundant were non-native
 invaders that were taller, and native invaders with low specific leaf area
 relative to planted species. Site-specific invaders were not influenced by
 any plot-level diversity metrics tested. Synthesis and application: Our
 results suggest greater phylogenetic diversity may lower resistance to
 invasion. This effect may be due to more even but sparser niche packing in
 high-diversity plots, associated with greater availability of unsaturated
 niche space for colonization. However, trait composition fostered invasion
 resistance in two ways in our study. First, establishment of native
 species with strongly dominant traits may confer invasion resistance.
 Second, species mixes that optimize trait differences between planted
 vegetation and likely invaders may enhance invasion-resistance.
description: # Neither phylogenetic nor functional diversity increase invasion
 resistance in an experimental grassland restoration
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4j0zpc8jq](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4j0zpc8jq) We established an experimental prairie restoration with 72 plots established from seed. We studied these plots over three years and collected biomass from each plot to understand invasion dynamics. We also collected trait data from the experiment to fill in gaps for species which were missing trait values in existing databases. ## Description of the data and file structure MeasuredTraits.csv This file contains height and specific leaf area data collected as part of this experiment. 1\. Species \- species name 2\. Trait \- which trait was measured \(either height or specific leaf area\) 3\. Trait Value \- the trait value measured 4\. Unit \- the unit used for trait measurement PlotBiomass.csv This file contains the biomass of each species in each plot, the category of invader can be determined by looking at the last three columns 1\. Plot \- plot number \- the unique idenitfying number assigned to each plot within this experiment 2\. Species \- species name 3\. Month \- the month the biomass was collected 4\. Year \- the year the biomass was collected 5\. Biomass \- biomass in grams 5\. Planted \- indicates whether the species was planted into that specific plot\. "planted" indicates it was\, "not" indicates it was not planted 6\. SiteSpp \- indicates whether the species was among the 127 experimental species \- "planted" indicates it was\, "not" indicates it was not planted 7\. Native \- indicates the origin of the species\, N \- indicates native\, NN \- indicates non\-native ## Sharing/Access information This is a section for linking to other ways to access the data, and for linking to sources the data is derived from, if any. Data was derived from the following sources: * https://www.sciencecollections.org/ * https://www.try-db.org/ * https://bien.nceas.ucsb.edu/bien/