Format: ORAL

Yurena Arjona1,2, Louis S. Jay-Garca1,2, Alfredo J. Reyes-Betancort3, Marcos Salas-Pascual4, Miguel Padrn-Mederos2, Agustn Naranjo-Cigala4, Javier Morente-Lpez2, Stephan Scholz5, Jairo Patio1,2

1 Instituto de Productos Naturales y Agrobiología, Spanish National Research Council (IPNA-CSIC), La Laguna, Spain 2 Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain 3 Jardín de Aclimatación de La Orotava, Puerto de La Cruz, Spain 4 Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tafira Baja, Spain 5 Jardín Botánico Oasis Wildlife Fuerteventura, Ctra. General de Jandía, 35627 La Lajita, Fuerteventura, Spain

Invasive species pose a significant threat to biodiversity, particularly on oceanic islands. The native biota of oceanic islands is both fragile and unique, rendering these ecological systems especially susceptible to biological invasions and other anthropogenic disturbances. Despite this recognition, the mechanisms driving the success of invasive species remain uncertain. Charles Darwin proposed two competing hypotheses, collectively known as Darwins Naturalization Conundrum (DNC), to predict a species invasive potential. The first hypothesis, termed the Pre-adaptation Hypothesis, posits that species closely related to the native community are more likely to invade successfully. This is attributed to their possession of similar life-history traits that pre-adapt them to establish and thrive under the local environmental conditions (environmental filtering). Conversely, the Naturalization Hypothesis suggests that species distantly related to native species can exploit empty ecological niches, avoiding competitive exclusion and thus exhibiting a higher potential for invasion (biotic filtering). Herein, we present the findings of a long-term project, ASTERALIEN, focused on testing the DNC within the Compositae family across the Canary Islands. We explored the DNC by examining two dimensions of relatedness between species: phylogenetic and functional distance. Utilizing a comprehensive phylogenomic approach to infer a super-tree encompassing all genera and a majority of species in the archipelago, we assessed the phylogenetic relatedness between alien and native species. This super-tree is constructed using hybrid capture-based target enrichment of the angiosperm-wide 353 and the Asteraceae family-specific 1061 probe sets for approximately 300 species. The integration of measured functional traits of all species collected in the field allow us to estimate functional distances between these two (naive vs. exotic) distinct functional groupings. By integrating both phylogenomic and functional approaches at unprecedent resolution, our study explicitly evaluates the mechanisms of evolution and invasion in alien species on oceanic islands within the framework of the DNC.