Abiotic and biotic contexts shape the effect of disturbance on non‐native plant invasion

Abstract

Making predictions about when and where a given mechanism of invasion will be weak or strong is crucial for the effective management of non‐native species. Despite the importance of disturbance on invasion, our understanding of how variation in abiotic and/or biotic conditions may modify the disturbance‐invasion relationship is scarce. Here, we aimed to evaluate how abiotic (soil type) and biotic (tree and shrub cover) contexts affect the disturbance–invasion relationship in disturbed and nearby non‐disturbed communities in the semi‐arid open forest of central Argentina (ca 36°S) using field sampling. We found that abiotic context modulated non‐native species success in disturbed communities, whereas both abiotic and biotic context modulated success in nearby non‐disturbed communities. These findings suggest that the plant invasion–disturbance relationship is context‐dependent. Our results hint at the possibility that the significance of disturbance in predicting invasion might diminish as the importance of abiotic filters increases.