Functional traits and plant invasions (Invited Review)

Global environmental change will affect non-native plant invasions, with profound potential impacts on native plant populations, communities and ecosystems. In this context, Drenovsky et al. review plant functional traits, particularly those that drive invader abundance (invasiveness) and impacts, as well as the integration of these traits across multiple ecological scales. They consider that an understanding of functional traits, their responsiveness to environmental change, and their ability to drive both invasiveness and impacts is critical to improving restoration and management strategies in response to non-native species. From this perspective, they address the question of how a functional trait framework can be applied to management of non-native plant invasions.