Interaction of plants and soil and other factors affecting plant invasiveness

Plant invasions represent a major ecological and socio-economical issue and understanding the drivers as well as consequences of plant invasions is thus one of the main goals of plant ecology. It is equally important to reveal general patterns underlying plant invasions and to understand the details of biology of individual invaders. In this thesis I explored plant-soil feedback (PSF) as a possible general mechanism underlying plant invasiveness, and also focused in detail on drivers and consequences of Impatiens parviflora invasion. The aims of this thesis were to i) assess the differences in intraspecific PSF between invasive and alien non-invasive species using a large set of species; ii) explore the relationship between PSF, residence time and phylogenetic novelty of the alien species; iii) compare the importance of PSF and other plant characteristics for plant invasiveness; iv) compare PSF between invasive and native congeners of similar level of dominance in the field; v) evaluate the effect of cultivating conditions on results of PSF experiments; vi) describe invasion dynamics and determine factors affecting spread of invasive I. parviflora using a method of monitoring its natural spread in several types of habitats, and vii) assess the impact of I. parviflora on native vegetation of oak-..