Abstract:

Background & Aims: Alien plant invasion has significantly threatened native biodiversity, ecological security, socio-economic development, and human health. Consequently, exploring the mechanisms of alien plant invasion and its ecological impacts are of great importance to the ecologically sustainable development of our country. Both questions are also key topics in the field of invasion ecology. Over the past decade, ecologists have conducted much research and achieved fruitful outcomes, providing theoretical guidance for the prevention and management of invasive alien plants and biodiversity conservation.
Progresses: Based on domestic and international studies in this field over the past decade, the present article reviews the progress of plant invasion ecology, focusing on the following three aspects of the field. First, we present the roles of species characteristics, biotic and abiotic environments on alien plant invasion. Second, we review the impacts of alien plant invasion on native ecosystems. Third, we briefly introduce the term ‘native plant invasion’ as an analog to alien plant invasion, as well as applications of multi-omics technology in the area.
Prospects: The review looks ahead to further developments in invasion ecology, including that (1) multiple species experiments rather than single species experiments are more suited to obtaining gerneralizable findings; (2) the geographical scale is increasing, such as from local scale to latitudinal gradient pattern; (3) more studies are integrating multiple invasion theories, rather than one hypothesis, into a unified framework.

Key words: biotic interaction, biological invasion, diversity, ecological effects, global change, invasion mechanism