Extra-regional residence time as a correlate of plant invasiveness: European archaeophytes in North America.

Human activities have degraded biogeographical barriers to dispersal resulting in the spread and naturalization of increasing numbers of nonnative invasive species. One correlate of invasiveness within a region is residence time or time since introduction. Plant species that were introduced into Europe prior to AD 1500 (European archaeophytes) that were subsequently introduced into North America provide a unique opportunity to examine the effect of extra-regional residence time (i.e., residence time that occurred in a nonnative region before a species was introduced into a new region). Here, we examine how nonnative species with extensive extra-regional residence times have affected beta diversity among states in the contiguous United States of America based on an analysis of occupancy and distance decay of similarity. State floras contained an average of 3106 +/- 922 species (mean +/- SD) with 2318 +/- 757 species classified as native, 180 +/- 43 species as European archaeophyte, and 608 -236 species as other exotic with no European archaeophyte association. For European archaeophytes, 42% were identified as noxious weeds in the United States with 8% identified as agricultural and 14% as natural-area weeds (20%, 2%, and 13% for other exotics, respectively). In strong contrast to natives and other exotics, European archaeophytes were more widespread and presented weaker distance-decay patterns. Thus, European archaeophytes were more likely to become noxious weeds, particularly within agricultural areas, and were associated with significant losses in beta diversity. We suggest that this outcome is a consequence of extra-regional residence time, which allowed for the selection of species or the evolution of traits that favored the colonization of arable habitats associated with early agricultural activities in Europe, habitats that are widespread, resource rich, and uniformly distributed in the United States. Our findings suggest that a long-term trajectory can be established, with residence time in one region building biological and geographical potential, often in direct association with anthropogenic activities, for invasions in new regions. When predicting or managing for potential invaders within a region, identifying extra-regional residence time and its consequences is critical when assessing a species' long-term invasive potential.