Temporal change in the diversity-invasibility relationship in the presence of a disturbance regime

Ecology Letters (2011) 14: 52–57 Abstract Disturbance can affect both the diversity and invasibility of communities. Many field studies have found correlations between diversity and susceptibility to invasion, but if both factors independently respond to disturbance then spurious non-causal relationships may be observed. Here, we show that disturbance can cause a temporal shift in the diversity–invasibility relationship. In a field experiment using sessile marine communities, disturbance strongly affected both diversity and invasion such that they were highly correlated. Disturbance facilitated initial invasion, creating a negative diversity–invasibility relationship when the invader first arrived. Over time, disturbance hindered the persistence of invaders, creating a positive diversity–invasibility relationship. We suggest that temporal changes in the diversity–invasibility relationship may have contributed to the 'invasion paradox', a term for the contrasting patterns of experimental and observational studies of the diversity–invasibility relationship.