What determines positive, neutral and negative impacts of Solidago canadensis invasion on native plant species richness?

Abstract Whether plant invasions pose a great threat to native plant diversity is still hotly debated due to conflicting findings. More importantly, we know little about the mechanisms of invasion impacts on native plant richness. We examined how Solidago canadensis invasion influenced native plants using data from 291 pairs of invaded and uninvaded plots covering an entire invaded range and quantified the relative contributions of climate, recipient communities and S. canadensis to invasion impacts. There were three types of invasion consequences for native plant species richness (i.e., positive, neutral and negative impacts). Overall, the relative contributions of recipient communities, S. canadensis and climate to invasion impacts were 71.39%, 21.46% and 7.15%, respectively; furthermore, the roles of recipient communities, S. canadensis and climate were largely ascribed to plant diversity, density and cover and precipitation. In terms of direct effects, invasion impacts were negatively linked to temperature and native plant communities and positively to precipitation and soil microbes. Soil microbes were crucial in the network of indirect effects on invasion impacts. These findings suggest that the characteristics of recipient communities are the most important determinants of invasion impacts and that invasion impacts may be a continuum across an entire invaded range.