# name
Climatic niche conservatism in non-native plants is largely dependent on their climatic niche breadth in the native range

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
Confidence in predictions of non-native species' spread relies on the nicheconservatism hypothesis, which poses that climatic niches are preserved over timeand space. Because plants introduced through the same introduction pathway(gardening, unintentional) tend to share some features of the introduction processand biological attributes, the extent of niche conservatism might be influenced byhow and when species of particular attributes have been introduced.

We compared the realized climatic niches between the native (global) andinvaded ranges (mainland Spain), through ordination and kernel smoothers. Wecalculated niche conservatism metrics (i.e. overlap, unfilling, stability, expansionand pioneering), for a set of 158 plant species. Niche conservatism metrics werethen related to a plant's introduction pathway, minimum residence time, growthform and native climatic niche breadth.

On average, niche stability accounted for 75% of niche occupancy, while around61% of species showed some degree of niche shift, which were mostly of smallmagnitude. The climatic niche was most conserved for annual and perennialherbs, plants introduced a long time ago, and those with broad climatic nichesin their native range. Introduction pathways had a non-significant effect. Nicheconservatism metrics were neither explained by interactions of minimumresidence time with introduction pathways nor with growth form. Native climaticniche breadth was the most important correlate of niche conservatism metrics.

Synthesis. Non-native plants largely occupy similar climatic conditions in theirinvaded and native range, a pattern that co-occurred with frequent and mostlysmall niche shifts. These results largely support the niche conservatism hypothesis.This boosts confidence in predictive models of non-native plants' spread. Thisstudy highlights that niche conservatism is better explained by a plant's abilityto cope with broad climatic conditions, rather than by its introduction history orgrowth form.

# metadata.dc.rights[].value
cc by-nc 4.0 (c) Riera, Marc et al., 2025

# metadata.dc.source[].value
Articles publicats en revistes (Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals)

# metadata.dc.title[].value
Climatic niche conservatism in non-native plants is largely dependent on their climatic niche breadth in the native range