Disturbances can facilitate biological invasions, with the associated
increase in resource availability being a proposed cause. Here, we
experimentally test the effects of disturbance regime and resource
abundance on invasion success. We invaded populations of the bacterium
Pseudomonas fluorescens with two invader morphotypes in a factorial
design containing five disturbance frequencies and three resource
levels. As resident populations were altered by the treatments, we
additionally tested their effect on invader success. Disturbance
frequency and resource abundance interacted to affect the success of
both invaders. For one, success was positively affected by disturbance
under high resources but negatively under low. For the other,
disturbance negatively affected success under high resource abundance
but not under low or medium. Resident population changes did not alter
invader success beyond direct treatment effects. Overall, how
disturbance affects invasion success is dependent on community resource
abundance, and this interaction acts differently on invaders with
different life-histories.