Studies that evaluate this hypothesis have used different approaches to test whether invasive populations allocate fewer resources to defense and more to growth and competitive ability than do source

The gap

Consensus across the literature

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• Habitat fragmentation and amount drive within‐species variation in dispersal kernels and limit transferability across landscapes (2026) · doi

  Improving predictions of dispersal under global change will require explicit consideration of intraspecific variation in dispersal driven by landscape context in both empirical and model‐based studies, and further investigation of additional context‐dependent drivers of dispersal variation.

  Keywords: dispersal variation context improving predictions global change require explicit consideration intraspecific driven landscape empirical model
• Strong differentiation between ancestral populations from low and high elevation: Implications for invasion biology (2026) · doi

  Abstract Premise The differentiation of native populations at regional scales may limit evolutionary inferences derived from comparisons between native and non‐native populations in common gardens, but little is known about how native populations of invasive species vary along environmental gradients at a regional scale.

  Keywords: native populations regional abstract premise differentiation scales limit evolutionary inferences derived comparisons common gardens little
• Meta‐analysis reveals evolution in invasive plant species but little support for Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability (<scp>EICA</scp>) (2013) · doi

  Studies that evaluate this hypothesis have used different approaches to test whether invasive populations allocate fewer resources to defense and more to growth and competitive ability than do source populations, with mixed results.

  Keywords: populations evaluate hypothesis used different approaches test whether invasive allocate fewer resources defense growth competitive