Trait-Based Plant Community Assembly, Ecological Restoration, and the Biocontrol of Invasive Exotic Plant Species

Plant functional traits, including both intra- and interspecific variations in morphological, physiological, and phenological characteristics, are fundamental to understanding plant adaptations and distributions. Previously, trait-based methods have been used to quantify plant community assembly and life history strategies. These methods have also been deemed an effective way of selecting candidate species for use in ecological restoration and the biocontrol of invasive exotic plant species. Trait-based plant community assembly can also provide guidance on how to use functional traits to perform ecological restoration. Trait-based life history strategies can not only reveal how invasive exotic plant species successfully invade the native ecosystem, but also facilitate to select native plant species to perform biocontrol.

Despite the remarkable importance of functional traits in community assembly, ecological restoration, and biocontrol of invasive exotic plant species, the original questions have not yet been fully answered. Additionally, there is still a need for the development and successful application of a specific, step-by-step procedure to guide the use of functional traits for selecting species for ecological restoration and biocontrol of invasive exotic plant species. Therefore, it is an important and urgent challenge to understand: 1) how to use functional traits to perform investigate ecological restoration, and biocontrol of invasive exotic plant species; and 2) trait-based community assembly and life history strategies during ecological restoration. The objective of this interdisciplinary Research Topic is to bring together the current research on trait-based community assembly and life history strategies during natural and artificial restoration, trait-based ecological restoration, and the biocontrol of invasive exotic plant species.

We welcome manuscripts on the following subjects:

• Trait-based community assembly, life history strategies, and ecophysiological mechanisms during natural and artificial plant restoration and when responding to environmental change
• Trait-based methods or protocol for selecting appropriate plant species to perform ecological restoration in degraded plant ecosystems
• Trait-based processes for revealing how invasive exotic plant species successfully invade different native plant ecosystems
• Trait-based methods or protocol for selecting native plant species to perform biocontrol of invasive exotic plant species
• How trait-based community assembly, life history strategies, and ecophysiological mechanisms guide ecological restoration