Biological invasions can be associated with shifts of the species' climatic niches but the incidence of such shifts is under debate. The reproductive system might be a key factor controlling such shifts because it influences a species' evolutionary flexibility. However, the link between reproductive systems and niche dynamics in plant invasions has been little studied so far. We compiled global occurrence data sets of 13 congeneric sexual and apomictic species pairs, and used principal components analysis (PCA) and kernel smoothers to compare changes in climatic niche optima, breadths and unfilling/expansion between native and alien ranges. Niche change metrics were compared between sexual and apomictic species. All 26 species showed changes in niche optima and/or breadth and 14 species significantly expanded their climatic niches. However, we found no effect of the reproductive system on niche dynamics. Instead, species with narrower native niches showed higher rates of niche expansion in the alien ranges. Our results suggest that niche shifts are frequent in plant invasions but evolutionary potential may not be of major importance for such shifts. Niche dynamics rather appear to be driven by changes of the realized niche without adaptive change of the fundamental climatic niche.

Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research University of Vienna Rennweg 14 Vienna 1030 Austria

Department of Ecology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Viničná 7 CZ 128 44 Prague 2 Czech Republic

Department of Systematics Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants Georg August University of Göttingen Untere Karspüle 2 Göttingen 37073 Germany

Ecology University of Konstanz Universitätsstrasse 10 Konstanz 78457 Germany

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Germany

Institute of Biochemistry and Biology University of Potsdam Maulbeerallee 1 Potsdam 14469 Germany

Institute of Botany Department of Invasion Ecology The Czech Academy of Sciences Průhonice CZ 252 43 Czech Republic

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