Understanding and predicting the success of invasive plants: a leaf carbon strategy approach

外来植物入侵植物群落是对全球生物多样性和生态系统过程的重大威胁。该提案旨在了解入侵植物在新环境中的策略，无论是现在还是在预测的未来条件下，使用叶碳策略的框架。比较和实验的方法将被用来了解入侵与本地物种相比，叶性状的关系。这将大大有助于我们了解全球植物功能关系，从而更好地预测潜在的入侵者。由此产生的数据还将为植物、生态系统和生物圈对纳入入侵动态的全球变化的反应模型提供关键投入。

Invasion of plant communities by exotic plants is a significant threat to biodiversity and ecosystem processes globally. This proposal seeks to understand strategies of invasive plants in novel environments both now and under predicted future conditions, using the framework of leaf carbon strategies. Comparative and experimental approaches will be used to understand leaf trait relationships of invasive compared with native species. This will contribute substantially to our understanding of global plant functional relationships, thereby enabling better prediction of potential invaders. The resulting data will also provide critical input for models of plant, ecosystem and biosphere responses to global change incorporating invasion dynamics.