Relative abundance of invasive plants more effectively explains the response of wetland communities to different invasion degrees than phylogenetic evenness

Abstract Native plant communities are commonly invaded by invasive plants to different degrees. However, the relative contribution of the invasive plant abundance vs. phylogenetic evenness to the responses of wetland communities to different degrees of invasion is still unclear. In addition, whether such contribution varies with environmental conditions such as flooding is also unclear. To address these questions, we chose Alternanthera philoxeroides as the invasive plant, and set up four invasive degrees by changing the community species composition under both flooding and non-flooding conditions. The relative abundance of A. philoxeroides and phylogenetic evenness changed simultaneously with the change in the community invasion degree. The invasion degree significantly affected the individual biomass of A. philoxeroides and some native species. Variation partitioning showed that the relative abundance of A. philoxeroides contributed more to variation in community indicators than phylogenetic evenness, regardless of flooding. Spearman rank correlation test showed that the relative abundance of A. philoxeroides was negatively correlated with the individual biomass of A. philoxeroides and some native species, while the phylogenetic evenness was positively correlated with only a few native species. And their correlation strength and significance were all affected by specific species and flooded environment. In conclusion, our results suggest that the relative abundance of A. philoxeroides can more effectively explain the wetland community response to different invasion degrees than phylogenetic evenness, regardless of flooding.