While invasive species typically harm ecosystems by outcompeting native organisms for resources, some provide unexpected benefits, including new shelters, nesting habitats, and reduced environmental heat stress.

Findings

Additional insights we found via SciShow

In Arizona, decades after cattle overgrazed native grasses that Botteri's sparrows used for nesting habitats, invasive lovegrasses provided an alternative that cattle did not consume.
From the Indo-Pacific to the Caribbean, an invasive microbe called Durusdinium trenchii—formerly Symbiodinium trenchii—has helped corals manage heat stress by continuing to photosynthesize at higher temperatures, providing food in conditions where other symbiotic, photosynthetic algae do not survive.
Invasive eucalyptus trees alter a microclimate's temperature, humidity, shading, and soil characteristics, but monarch butterflies in California are known to use the trees to roost, lay eggs, and as a source of nectar.
On the Japanese island of Anijima, fast-growing drooping sheoak trees drop significant litter on the forest floor, which prevents native plants from growing there, but this litter also helps native land snails seeking to hide from invasive black rats.