Plant invasion across space and time: factors affecting nonindigenous species success during four stages of invasion

Invasive nonindigenous plant species (NIPS) threaten native diversity, alter ecosystem processes, and may interact with other components of global environmental change. Here, a general framework is outlined that attempts to connect patterns of plant invasion to processes underlying these patterns at four well-established spatio-temporal stages of the invasion process: transport, colonization, establishment, and landscape spread. At each stage we organize findings and ideas about the filters that limit NIPS success and the interaction of these filters with historical aspects of introduction events, NIPS traits, and ecosystem properties. While it remains difficult to draw conclusions about the risk of invasion…