Similarity in Persistence Traits Is Important for CoExistence With Perennial Invasive Asclepias syriaca but Not Annual Invasive Conyza canadensis

Csecserits, Anikó and Berki, Boglárka and Csákvári, Edina and Halassy, Melinda and Mártonffy, András and Rédei, Tamás and Szitár, Katalin and Botta-Dukát, Zoltán (2025) Similarity in Persistence Traits Is Important for CoExistence With Perennial Invasive Asclepias syriaca but Not Annual Invasive Conyza canadensis. JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE, 36 (6). No. e70081. ISSN 1100-9233

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Abstract

Questions: What is the position of the two selected invasive alien species in the regional trait space? Does the probability of occurrence of a species depend on the interaction of its similarity to and the cover of the selected invasive species, Asclepias syriaca and Conyza canadensis? Location: Hungary, Kiskunság, sandy grasslands. Methods: We used data from a stratified random grassland survey (plot size: 25 m2, n=161). Our analysis focused on the two most common invasive species of studied habitats: clonal perennial A. syriaca and annual C. canadensis. Trait similarity between species was measured by weighted Gower distance using three sets of traits: (1) 12 traits covering all aspects of life history, (2) traits related to reproduction and (3) traits related to persistence. Calculated similarities were used to describe the position of the two focal invasive species in the trait space generated by all species. We fitted generalised mixed-effects models with the presence/absence of all species except A. syriaca and C. canadensis as dependent variables and trait similarity to, and cover of invasive species as predictors. Results: We found that both invasive species were in the trait range of the regional species pool. C. canadensis was closer to the centre of regional trait space than A. syriaca. Similarity to A. syriaca and its cover interacted to influence the occurrence of the rest of the species: Where the cover of A. syriaca was higher, similar species occurred with a higher probability. We found no such effect of similarity in the case of C. canadensis. Conclusions: These results suggest that for perennial invasive species A. syriaca, trait similarity may influence the composition of co-occurring species. In contrast, the results of annual C. canadensis suggest a more random assembly.

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