Invasive plants are better than native plants at detecting and avoiding their own roots underground, helping them reduce self-competition. Crucially, invasive plants maintain this ability even in disturbed soils, while natives lose it — giving invaders a lasting competitive edge.
1
In split-root experiments across five invasive-native plant pairs, invasive plants consistently reduced root allocation toward their own kind more strongly than native counterparts.
2
Native plants showed normal root segregation in fresh soil, but lost it entirely when grown in soil previously conditioned by either invasive or native plants; invasive plants were unaffected in either soil type.
3
The collapse of root segregation in native plants was correlated with shifts in soil fungal and bacterial community composition caused by prior plant occupancy.
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