In many systems, native communities are being replaced by novel exotic-dominated ones. We experimentally compared species diversity decline between nine-species grassland communities under field conditions to test whether diversity maintenance mechanisms differed between communities containing all exotic or all native species using a pool of 40 species. Aboveground biomass was greater in exotic...

The relationship between species number and island area is a fundamental rule in ecology. However, the extent to which interactions with exotic species and how the structure of species interactions is related to island area remain unexplored. Here, I document the relationship between island area and (i) interactions with exotic species and (ii) network structure of species interactions in the c...

It is often assumed that exotic plants can become invasive when they possess novel secondary chemistry compared with native plants in the introduced range. Using untargeted metabolomic fingerprinting, we compared a broad range of metabolites of six successful exotic plant species and their native congeners of the family Asteraceae. Our results showed that plant chemistry is highly species-speci...

Invasive exotic plant species are often expected to benefit exclusively from legacy effects of their litter inputs on soil processes and nutrient availability. However, there are relatively few experimental tests determining how litter of exotic plants affects their own growth conditions compared to congeneric native plant species. Here, we test how the legacy of litter from three exotic plant ...

Research of unique features in exotic animal species often reveals unexpected biology and may even shed light on disease treatment. A recent paper by Tian et al. studies a long-lived, cancer-free rodent named the naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) to understand the mechanism of cancer resistance. Previous work by the same group has suggested early contact inhibition (ECI) in the naked mole ...

the systematics, morphology, distribution, biology, economic importance and conservation of the freshwater eel ( anguilla anguilla ) of iran are described, the species is illustrated, and a bibliography on this fish in iran is provided. the species is found in the caspian sea basin as an exotic.

DENSLOW M. W. (Department of Biology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608), M. W. PALMER (Department of Botany, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078), AND Z. E. MURRELL (Department of Biology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608). Patterns of native and exotic vascular plant richness along an elevational gradient from sea level to the summit of the Appalachian Mou...

1. Biological invasions threaten biodiversity, and understanding the factors that influence a community’s susceptibility to invasion informs both management of invasive species and conservation efforts towards promoting biodiversity. 2. In this study, we examined the native–exotic richness relationships (NERR) at two spatial scales and asked what variables mediate the relationship between nativ...

Exotic species are widely assumed to thrive because they lack natural enemies in their new ranges. However, a meta-analysis of 63 manipulative field studies including more than 100 exotic plant species revealed that native herbivores suppressed exotic plants, whereas exotic herbivores facilitated both the abundance and species richness of exotic plants. Both outcomes suggest that plants are esp...