Climatic niche conservatism in non-native plants depends on introduction history and biogeographic context
Niche conservatism is a fundamental assumption in predictive models for managing non-native species, but its generality remains debated due to mixed empirical evidence. We argue that this reflects underexplored context dependencies, as few studies have compared the niche dynamics of species introduced to multiple regions. Here, we quantify climatic niche changes in 1566 introductions of 316 non-native plant species across eight regions, including continents and archipelagos. While niche expansion into previously unoccupied conditions was low, niche conservatism and unfilling varied strongly across regions. Species with small native range sizes exhibited greater niche expansion. Longer residence times reduced niche unfilling, suggesting that a lack of niche conservatism observed in many regions might be transient and potentially linked to dispersal limitations. Our results highlight the necessity to consider region-specific contexts when assessing the potential for niche changes and provide a critical foundation for improving predictive models informing the management of non-native species.
Authors
- Dylan Craven (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3940-833X)
- Anna Rönnfeldt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3437-9579)
- Damaris Zurell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4628-3558)
- Laure Gallien (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4882-1580)
- Knight Tiffany
- Juliano Sarmento Cabral (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0116-220X)
- Katrin Schifferle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8545-077X)
- Valén Holle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0666-0132)
- Patrick Weigelt
Institutions
- Universidad Mayor (CL)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- National Tropical Botanical Garden (US)
- University of Bonn (DE)
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (DE)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- University of Potsdam (DE)
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (DE)
- Radboud University Medical Center (NL)
- Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (NL)
- Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (FR)
- Data Observatory Foundation
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (DE)
- University of Göttingen (DE)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-01-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-68023-6
- Primary Topic
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- American Museum of Natural History
- NERC Environmental Bioinformatics Centre
- New Mexico State University
- Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco
- Commonwealth Health Research Board
- San José State University
- Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- University of New South Wales
- Universidad ICESI
- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia
- Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
- Universidad Pública de Navarra
- Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
- Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
- Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz
- Universidade Federal do Maranhão
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of Texas at El Paso