Quantifying the ecological impacts of alien aquatic macrophytes: A global meta‐analysis of effects on fish, macroinvertebrate and macrophyte assemblages
Abstract
1. Biological invasions constitute a pervasive and growing threat to the biodiversity and functioning of freshwater ecosystems. Macrophytes are key primary producers and ecosystem engineers in freshwaters, meaning that alien macrophyte invasions have the capacity to alter the structure and function of recipient aquatic ecosystems profoundly. Although prevailing wisdom holds that alien macrophyte invasions tend to compromise freshwater ecosystem structure and function, the ecological impacts of alien macrophyte invasion have not been quantitatively reviewed to date. 2. Here we present a global meta- analysis of 202 cases from 53 research articles, exploring the impacts of alien macrophyte invasion on the abundance and diversity of three ubiquitous and ecologically important focal groups, which together comprise the bulk of non- microbial freshwater biodiversity: resident macrophytes, macroinvertebrates and fish. Our synthesis includes data from all continents except Antarctica and Asia,
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