Climate change is expected to trigger an upward expansion of plants in mountain regions^1,2 and, although there is strong evidence that many native species have already shifted their distributions to higher elevations^1,3,4,5,6, little is known regarding how fast non-native species might respond to climate change. By analysing 131,394 occurrence records of 1,334 plant species collected over 20 years in the European Alps, we found that non-natives are spreading upwards approximately twice as fast as natives. Whereas the spread of natives was enhanced by traits favouring longer dispersal distances, this was not the case for non-natives. This was due to the non-native species pool already being strongly biased towards species that had traits facilitating spread. A large proportion of native and non-native species seemed to be able to spread upwards faster than the current velocity of climate change. In particular, long-distance dispersal events and proximity to roads proved to be key drivers for the observed rapid spread. Our findings highlight that invasions by non-native species into native alpine communities are a potentially significant additional pressure on these vulnerable ecosystems that are already likely to suffer dramatic vegetation changes with ongoing warming and increasing human activity in mountain regions.

尽管有充分的证据表明许多原生物种已经将其分布转移到更高的海拔^1,3,4,5,6，但气候变化有望引发^1,2地区山区植物的向上扩张。，关于外来物种对气候变化的反应速度知之甚少。通过分析20年来在欧洲阿尔卑斯山收集的1,334种植物的131,394种发生记录，我们发现非本地人向上传播的速度约为本地人的两倍。有利于更长的散布距离的性状促进了本地人的传播，但非本地人则不是这种情况。这是由于非本地物种库已经强烈偏向具有促进传播特性的物种。很大比例的本地和非本地物种似乎能够比目前的气候变化速度更快地向上传播。特别是，长距离分散事件和靠近道路被证明是观察到的快速扩散的关键驱动力。