Plant invasions, a byproduct of globalization, are increasing worldwide. Because of their ecological and economic impacts, considerable efforts have been made to understand and predict the success of non-native plants. Numerous frameworks, hypotheses, and theories have been advanced to conceptualize the interactions of multiple drivers and context dependence of invasion success with the aim of achieving robust explanations with predictive power. We review these efforts from a community-level perspective rather than a biogeographical one, focusing on terrestrial systems, and explore the roles of intrinsic plant properties in determining species invasiveness, as well as the effects of biotic and abiotic conditions in mediating ecosystem invasibility (or resistance) and ecological and evolutionary processes. We also consider the fundamental influences of human-induced changes at scales ranging from local to global in triggering, promoting, and sustaining plant invasions and discuss how these changes could alter future invasion trajectories.

Bioprotection Aotearoa Lincoln University Lincoln New Zealand; email

Centre for Invasion Biology Department of Botany and Zoology Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch South Africa; email

Department of Ecology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Department of Invasion Ecology Institute of Botany Czech Academy of Sciences Průhonice Czech Republic; email

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