Artificial light at night alters the relative dominance of invasive plants in a nutrient-dependent manner across native species richness levels
- 1Jilin Da'an Agro-ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Key Laboratory of Marsh Wetland Ecosystem Conservation and Restoration, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin, People's Republic of China
- 2Department of Biological and Life Sciences, Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
- 3Shandong Key Laboratory of Eco-Environmental Science for Yellow River Delta, Shandong University of Aeronautics, Binzhou, Shandong, People's Republic of China
Abstract
Non-native plant invasions pose a global challenge, yet how nutrient enrichment and artificial light at night (ALAN) interact with native-community species richness to shape invasive-plant performance and community-level dominance remains unclear. We conducted a multispecies greenhouse experiment in which target invasive species and native communities were established simultaneously under fully crossed factorial combinations of ALAN (No-ALAN or ALAN), nutrient enrichment (low or high) and native species richness (two, four or eight species). We quantified target invasive-plant above-ground biomass, flowering probability and proportional above-ground biomass, as well as native-community and total-community above-ground biomass. Nutrient enrichment increased invader above-ground biomass by 272.88%, flowering probability by 30.39% and native-community above-ground biomass by 97.58%, although its effect on proportional invader biomass remained uncertain. ALAN did not clearly affect invader biomass or flowering but increased its proportional biomass under high-nutrient conditions by 5.74% and reduced it under low nutrients by 4.75%. Native species richness showed no clear effects on invader performance, community biomass or responses to ALAN and nutrients. Within this experimental context, invasive-plant performance was driven primarily by nutrient enrichment, with ALAN facilitating invader dominance under high-nutrient conditions, indicating that invasion outcomes were more influenced by resource availability than by native-community species richness.
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BibTeX
@article{zhang2026artificial,
title = {{Artificial light at night alters the relative dominance of invasive plants in a nutrient-dependent manner across native species richness levels}},
author = {Haobin Zhang and Ayub M. O. Oduor and Lu Xiao and Yanjie Liu},
journal = {Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1098/rspb.2026.0507},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2026.0507},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Artificial light at night alters the relative dominance of invasive plants in a nutrient-dependent manner across native species richness levels
AU - Haobin Zhang
AU - Ayub M. O. Oduor
AU - Lu Xiao
AU - Yanjie Liu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2026.0507
UR - https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2026.0507
AB - Non-native plant invasions pose a global challenge, yet how nutrient enrichment and artificial light at night (ALAN) interact with native-community species richness to shape invasive-plant performance and community-level dominance remains unclear. We conducted a multispecies greenhouse experiment in which target invasive species and native communities were established simultaneously under fully crossed factorial combinations of ALAN (No-ALAN or ALAN), nutrient enrichment (low or high) and native species richness (two, four or eight species). We quantified target invasive-plant above-ground biomass, flowering probability and proportional above-ground biomass, as well as native-community and total-community above-ground biomass. Nutrient enrichment increased invader above-ground biomass by 272.88%, flowering probability by 30.39% and native-community above-ground biomass by 97.58%, although its effect on proportional invader biomass remained uncertain. ALAN did not clearly affect invader biomass or flowering but increased its proportional biomass under high-nutrient conditions by 5.74% and reduced it under low nutrients by 4.75%. Native species richness showed no clear effects on invader performance, community biomass or responses to ALAN and nutrients. Within this experimental context, invasive-plant performance was driven primarily by nutrient enrichment, with ALAN facilitating invader dominance under high-nutrient conditions, indicating that invasion outcomes were more influenced by resource availability than by native-community species richness.
SN - 0962-8452
SN - 1471-2954
ER -