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How changes in species’ native occupancy over time relate to global naturalization success remains unclear. Here, the authors show that species with both high occupancy decades ago and increasing native occupancy ever since are more likely to become naturalized elsewhere.

Analysing the distributions of >99% of the world’s seed plant flora, the authors find evidence supporting the evolutionary imbalance hypothesis, with species originating from large, biodiverse regions being more successful at naturalizing beyond their native ranges.

Humans have altered plant biogeography by introducing species from one region to another, but an analysis of how naturalized plant species affect the uniqueness of regional floras around the world was missing. This study presents an analysis using data from native and naturalized alien floras in 658 regions, finding strong taxonomic and phylogenetic floristic homogenization overall.

Large brains are expected to be beneficial in variable environments by enabling flexible behavioral responses. Here, the authors show that relative brain size in birds is bimodally distributed in colder, seasonal environments, suggesting that both large and small brains can be adaptive solutions to harsh conditions.

This paper examines how the relationship between native and alien plants changes the nature of an invasion, finding that the stages, and ultimate success, of an invasion are intrinsically linked to the phylogenetic relationship.

Alien species could be either more or less likely to become naturalized where closely related species occur. This study reveals a global latitudinal pattern whereby successfully naturalized alien plants are more closely related to natives at higher latitudes, reinforced by human modification of the environment.

Understanding why certain alien species become naturalized can shed light on biological invasion patterns. In this global analysis on thousands of taxa, van Kleunen and colleagues show that plant species of economic use are more likely to become naturalized, and that this underlies geographic patterns and phylogenetic signals in naturalization

The ability to cope with environmental variability is thought to be a major driver of brain-size evolution. Here, the authors show that cognitive capacity in birds may instead have pre-dated and facilitated the colonization of variable habitats.