Intraspecific variations of adaptive strategies of native and invasive plant species along an elevational gradient

•Grime's adaptive strategy and its intraspecific variation can help understand the mechanism of plant invasions.•Most invasive plant species are R-selected whereas the natives are C-selected.•Invasive plant species’ C- and R-score decreased, whilst S-score increased with elevation.•Few of the CSR scores of native plant species showed clear elevation patterns.•The variations of CSR strategies were species-specific and microhabitat-dependent.