Invasive species can significantly affect native species when their niches are similar. Ecological and morphological similarities between the invasive Australian palm, Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, and the native palm from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Euterpe edulis, suggest that they have similar environmental requirements and functional roles (i.e., the function a species performs in an ecosystem). This similarity raises concerns about how the invasive palm could impact the native species in the present and future. We used spatial (species occurrences) and ecological information (frugivory events) to characterize the environmental niche and functional role of the two palms and assess their overlap. In addition, we predicted the potential area of occurrence of each palm within the Brazilian Atlantic Forest under current and future climate conditions.We estimated the environmental conditions used by the invasive plant based on its native distribution only, and based on all areas where the species is able to establish across the globe. We found that the environmental niches of the two palm species overlap up to 39%, which corresponds to 50% of the current geographic distribution of E. edulis in the Atlantic Forest. In the areas where the two species potentially co-occur, the impact of the invasive species on the native should be influenced by the invasive species interactions with frugivores. We found that the frugivory functional role of the two palms was similar (84% overlap) which suggest that A. cunninghamiana might disrupt the seed dispersal of the native palm. However, co-occurrence between the palms may decline with future climate change, as the potentially environmental suitable area for the invasive palm is predicted to decline by 10% to 55%. Evaluating the similarity in both the environmental niche, of the native and global extent, and the functional role of native and invasive plants provides a detailed understanding of the potential impact of invasive species on native species now and in the future.

当它们的生态位相似时，入侵物种会极大地影响本地物种。侵入澳大利亚掌之间，生态和形态的相似之处假槟榔cunninghamiana，并从巴西大西洋森林的天然棕榈油，尤特普贻贝，表明它们具有相似的环境要求和功能角色（即，物种在生态系统中执行的功能）。这种相似性引起了人们的关注，即在现在和将来，侵入性棕榈会如何影响本地物种。我们使用了空间（物种发生）和生态信息（节食事件）来表征两个棕榈树的环境生态位和功能角色，并评估它们的重叠。此外，我们预测了当前和未来气候条件下巴西大西洋森林中每棵棕榈的潜在发生区域。我们仅根据入侵植物的自然分布以及物种所处的所有区域来估计入侵植物所使用的环境条件能够在全球建立。我们发现，这两种棕榈物种的环境生态位重叠高达39％，这相当于大西洋森林中可食的大肠杆菌的地理分布的50％。在两个物种可能同时存在的地区，入侵物种对本地物种的影响应受到入侵物种与食蟹类动物相互作用的影响。我们发现两个手掌的节食功能作用相似（重叠程度为84％），这表明杉木（A. cunninghamiana）可能会破坏天然棕榈的种子传播。但是，随着未来气候变化，手掌之间的共生可能会减少，因为预计侵入性手掌的潜在环境适宜面积将减少10％至5​​5％。评估本地和全球范围内环境生态位的相似性，以及本地和入侵植物的功能作用，可提供对入侵物种对现在和将来对本地物种的潜在影响的详细了解。