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The article discusses the study that examines how growth with invasive thistles impacts survival, growth, reproductive output and ecophysiology of native perennial bunchgrasses growing in two soil environments. The study authors measured plant performance in terms of survival, growth, reproduction and predawn water potential. The results revealed that soil depth, water availability and bunchgrass maturity acted in agreement to influence the impact of the invasive thistle on the native bunchgrass. Moreover, the combination of shallow soil and low water availability reduced the performance of invasive thistle and improved its negative effect on the growth and reproduction of native perennial bunchgrass.

The article presents a study which examines whether invasiveness is associated with differences in life history traits using congeneric annual thistles in California. It explores differences in congeners in their response to different sizes of soil disturbance and to clipping, while grazing is thought to impact Centaurea establishment. It shows that differential growth responses of congeners to various sizes of canopy gaps resulted to large differences in fecundity and adult size.