Plant invasion destabilizes communities through asymmetric competition

Plant invasion is a significant driver of species loss in ecological communities. However, projecting its impact on the coexistence potential of multi-species communities and their persistence under random environmental perturbations remains challenging. Here, we conducted pairwise experiments with five native and five non-native species using the Ricker model to estimate interaction coefficients and assessed the impact of non-native species on community persistence through feasibility domains (i.e., the probability that all species can coexist simultaneously), and species exclusion probabilities. At the community level, we found that community persistence generally declined after non-native species invasion, with the feasibility domain becoming more asymmetric as more native species were replaced by non-native ones. At the species level, non-native species are likely to be excluded first under strong perturbations. Our findings highlight the importance of clarifying species interactions in shaping community persistence, and tailoring invasion management strategies to local environments to optimize resource allocation.