The aim of this thesis was to identify factors that contribute to invasiveness of species in the genus Impatiens. This genus is horticulturally attractive and includes several species that are known to have naturalized outside their native ranges, while others did not escape, in spite of being frequently cultivated. When looking for traits associated with invasiveness, it is useful to focus on congeneric species. Their traits and dispersal modes are less influenced by phylogeny, than when comparing unrelated species or even complete floras. This helps to account for traits that favour invasive species over native ones and thus identify potential invaders more precisely. A superior invader performance is attributed to a competitive advantage over native species that can lead in extreme case to competitive exclusion of the latter. Invasive and native species com- pete only if their niches overlap and the strength of competition depends on niche similarity. Importantly, invasive species are considered to be able to maintain their high competitiveness over a wide range of environmental conditions, while native ones often have narrower environ- mental optima. Lastly, competitive outcome can vary over life stages and depends on the degree of species dominance, which is rarely taken into account. Spread and...
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:369449 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Čuda, Jan |
| Contributors | Pyšek, Petr, Kollmann, Johannes, Prach, Karel |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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