Drs. T. (Tim) Engelkes: Climate warming, plant invasions and plant-enemy interactions

In this PhD-thesis, it is shown that climate warming induces range expansion of plant species that have invasive properties. Exotic plants that expand range within a continent have invasive properties that do not differ from exotic plants that first were introduced in a new continent before starting to expand their range. The invasive properties were: less susceptibility to soil-borne pathogens in the new range, fewer invertebrate herbivores and more invertebrate carnivores than related native plant species. Thus, climate warming may enhance the incidence of biological invasions.