Invasive plants introduced by humans to new environments can outcompete native species and disrupt entire ecosystems, and some introduced invasive species called “super invaders” have qualities that allow them to grow more rapidly than native species.

UConn Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community, and Urban Studies researcher Julissa Rojas-Sandoval is studying the impact of super invaders across the Americas as part of an international collaboration, leading experiments in Connecticut, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. This project seeks to understand why super invaders appear to “play by different rules” than natives in the same environment.

UConn Greenhouses and the UConn Forest serve as living laboratories, where students Charlotte Melnitsky ’25 (CLAS) and Morgan Reynolds ’25 (CLAS) are helping to determine what gives super invaders the competitive advantage and experiment with different methods to measure resource capture and defense trade-offs. This information can help with the development of effective management strategies to preserve crucial forest ecosystems.

This research is in collaboration with Jason Fridley (Clemson University), Michele Dechoum (Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil), Patrick Martin (University of Denver), Guadalupe Williams (Institute of Ecology, Mexico), Eduardo Chacon (University of Costa Rica) and Alana Freytes and José Fumero (University of Puerto Rico). The project is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and is made possible with the crucial support of the Institute of the Environment, UConn Forest staff members, Robert Fahey and Thomas Worthley (UConn NRE and UConn Extension), and UConn Floriculture Greenhouse staff members Frederick Pettit and Shelley Durocher.