Effects of warming and nutrient fluctuation on invader Chromolaena odorata and natives in artificial communities

There is increasing evidence that climate change and nutrient fluctuations can affect the invasion of alien plants. However, most studies have been performed in pairwise experiments between alien and native species, rather than in multispecies community experiments. In southwest China, a series of artificial multispecies communities containing one invasive species, Chromolaena odorata , and three co-occurring native species were constructed to test the effects of warming and nutrient fluctuations on the invasion success of C. odorata . We found that the invasion success of C. odorata was enhanced significantly under warming but was not influenced by the nutrient fluctuation treatment. However, there was an interactive effect between the warming and nutrient fluctuation treatments on the aboveground biomass of the native plants. Further analysis revealed that the positive effect of warming on plant invasion could be explained by two factors: the enhancement of the invader and suppression of the native plants. Overall, strong warming but weak nutrient fluctuation effects on the invasion success of C. odorata were observed in this experiment.