Evaluating differences in the shape of native and alien plant trait distributions will bring new insights into invasions of plant communities

摘要: Failure to quantify differences in the shape of inter‐specific trait distributions (e.g., skew, kurtosis) when comparing co‐occurring alien and native plants hinders integration biological invasions plant community ecology. Within a community, understanding circumstances that lead distribution one or more functional traits being unimodal, bimodal, multimodal skewed has potential shed new light on vulnerability invasion, subsequent ecosystem impacts selection pressures stabilizing, directional disruptive) acting upon species. Ignoring species could miss important insights into invasions, including: existence unsaturated communities, empty niches, shifting optima as result environmental change incomplete colonization–extinction processes following invasion. Future comparisons between should include assessment shapes since these may differ even mean values are similar for The infrequent application such approaches explain limited generalizations regarding drivers consequences communities.