We are highly grateful to the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, CNCS/CCCDI – UEFISCDI (PNCDI III) for funded us. Thank you very much!

Details about the project:
Title of the project: Developing a national risk assessment scheme using the functional trait-based approach for early detection of future invasive plant species
Number of the project: PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019_0414
Host institute: Babes-Bolyai University, Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology
Project leader: Annamária Fenesi
Project members: Eszter Ruprecht, Thomas Kun, Zsombor Miholcsa
Period: September 2020 – August 2022

The proposed objectives of the project
Objective 1. Identifying a list of functional traits that confer (1) invasion potential, (2) ability to respond to climate change, and (3) high impact upon native communities for naturalized non-native species.
(1) Finding easily detectable/measurable functional traits in certain ecological groups of herbaceous species (annual forbs, perennial forbs, grass species) that are linked with invasion potential under experimental conditions simulating current and future climate conditions;
(2) Finding functional traits of invasive species linked with high impact upon native plant communities;
Objective 2. Developing a comprehensive national screening tool to identify the newly arriving non-native species that might become harmful invasive species in the future.
(1) Compiling a risk assessment scheme for Romania based on identified plant functional traits, local land disturbance aspects, and information collected from published weed risk assessments for other countries;
(2) Identifying potential invasive species based on our risk assessment scheme and climate niche modelling;
Objective 3. Studying the establishment opportunities of potential invasive species in herbaceous plant communities under different climate change scenarios.
(1) Short-term study on how predicted climate change affects the establishment of non-native species using the space-for-time substitution method;
(2) Long-term study on non-native species establishment and impact on native communities by implementing a climate change experiment under controlled circumstances in herbaceous plant communities.

The results of the project:
(1) We performed a huge experiment with 100 alien species to compare the seed and germination traits, performance, phenotypic plasticity and other characteristics of invasive and non-invasive alien species. See the methods and results here.
(2) We analyzed the data of a field-based study about the impact of twelve highly invasive plant species on native plant and pollinator communities. We also highlighted the functional traits of invasive species that influence the magnitude of impact. See the results of this study here.
(3) Based on the results of our studies, we developed the Romanian Risk Assessment Protocol for Invasive Species. See the full protocol here.
(4) We studied the effect of two range expanding species on the invaded grassland communities, and we discuss the factors behind the invasion. Details about this short-term experiment here.
(5) We established an experimental site suitable to study the join effect of climate change and plant invasion on the diversity and functioning of grassland communities. We started our first long-term study, see the details here.

Read about our results! Papers and manuscript related to this project:
(1) Kovács-Hostyánszki, A, Szigeti V, Miholcsa Z, Sándor D, Soltész Z, Török E, Fenesi A: Threats and benefits of invasive alien plant species on pollinators: lessons from a multi-species approach. Basic and Applied Ecology . DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2022.07.003
(2) Szigeti V, Fenesi A, Botta-Dukát Z, Kuhlmann M, Potts SG, Roberts S, Soltész Z, Török E, Kovács-Hostyánszki A: Trait-based effects of plant invasion on floral resources, hoverflies and wild bees – a multi-species and multi-analytical approach. Insect conservation and diversity (major revision)
(3) Fenesi A, Botta-Dukát Z, Miholcsa Z, Szigeti V, Molnár C, Sándor D, Szabó A, Kuhn T, Kovács-Hostyánszki A: No consistencies in abundance-impact relationships across herbaceous invasive species and ecological impact metrics. Journal of Ecology (submitted)
(4) Ruprecht E, Essl F, Fenesi A, Moț CA, Kuhn T, Balaji B, Mardari C, Miholcsa Z. Matching of species attributes and environmental change drivers explains the intra-continental range-expansion of an annual forb. Basic and Applied Ecology (submitted).
(5) Fenesi A, Miholcsa Z, Kuhn T, Ferencz K, Sándor D, Tóth-Pál H, Varga G, Ruprecht E:Providing information for trait-based risk assessment of potential invasive species for Romania. (in prep.)
(6) Kuhn T, Miholcsa Z, Fenesi A: The first risk assessment protocol for herbaceous invasive plant species for Romania. (in prep.)