Invasive Plant Dynamics and Management Strategies

Invasive plant species disrupt native ecosystems by passing through sequential stages of introduction, naturalisation, establishment and spread, driven by a combination of species traits, propagule pressure and human‐mediated pathways. Traits such as rapid growth, phenological plasticity and broad environmental tolerances confer competitive advantages, while human activities—including horticulture, agriculture and global trade—provide repeated opportunities for introduction. Ecosystem invasibility is further shaped by disturbance regimes, resource availability and biotic resistance from resident communities. Management strategies span prevention through stringent risk assessment and pathway control; early detection and rapid response via surveillance networks and citizen science; control measures such as mechanical removal, targeted herbicide application and biological control; and long‐term restoration ecology to re‐establish native diversity and ecosystem function. Integrated approaches that combine policy instruments, stakeholder engagement and ecological understanding are essential to mitigate the global impacts of invasive plants on biodiversity, agriculture and human well-being.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Global analyses have revealed that the interplay between plant genome size, adaptive CSR strategies (stress tolerance, competitive ability and ruderal traits) and economic use determines both naturalisation and invasion success. Human assistance emerges as a dominant driver, but species’ adaptive strategies and native range sizes heavily influence outcomes at different invasion stages. In parallel, trait‐based studies demonstrate that species which naturalise tend to mirror the functional traits of native communities, whereas fully invasive species occupy novel positions at the edge of functional trait space—often characterised by greater height or rapid resource acquisition—allowing them to exploit unoccupied niche space and accelerate their spread.

Invasive Plant Dynamics and Management Strategies publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in invasive plant dynamics and management strategies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Propagule pressure: The quantity and frequency of non-native individuals introduced to a novel environment.

Naturalisation: The establishment of self-sustaining populations of an introduced species in the wild.

CSR strategies: A framework classifying species’ ecological strategies according to stress tolerance, competitive ability and ruderal traits.

Functional trait space: The multidimensional range of organismal traits that determine ecological roles and interactions.

Invasibility: The susceptibility of an ecosystem to invasion by non-native species based on environmental and biotic factors.

Biotic resistance: The capacity of native communities to limit invasion through interactions such as competition and predation.

References

1. Why Are Invasive Plants Successful?. Annual Review of Plant Biology (2023).
2. Plant invasion and naturalization are influenced by genome size, ecology and economic use globally. Nature Communications (2024).
3. Similarity of introduced plant species to native ones facilitates naturalization, but differences enhance invasion success. Nature Communications (2018).
4. Effects of extreme drought on the invasion dynamics of non-native plants. Trends in Plant Science (2024).
5. Integrating invasive species policies across ornamental horticulture supply chains to prevent plant invasions. Journal of Applied Ecology (2017).