Spartina densiflora has been moving into habitats in the San Francisco estuary, displacing the native Spartina foliosa, leading to a campaign to eradicate it. A study by Blanca Gallego-Tévar and colleagues has found that rising sea levels could cause more harm to the invasive species than the native plant. But they also found that a hybrid of the two species may combine genes  to survive in the changing environment. “The hybrid S. densiflora × S. foliosa produced more biomass, tall tillers and rhizome reserves than the parental species. The hybrid also achieved high vegetative and reproductive fitness, even under the most stressful conditions imposed in our experiment,” wrote the authors in their paper.

Understanding how invasive species behave in habitats is critical, as we learn more about the ecosystem services they provide, said one of the co-authors of the study, Jesus Manuel Castillo Segura. “Invasive species outcompete native biodiversity, alter natural landscapes, change nutrient fluxes, etc. We don’t need invasive species because we normally have native plants that are suitable bio-tools for ecological restoration projects and other ecological applications.”