Disentangling the heritable and plastic components of the competitive and facilitative effects of an alpine foundation species

Hayek, Patrick Al; Maalouf, Jean‐Paul; Touzard, Blaise; Michalet, Richard

doi:10.1111/1365-2745.12445

Cited by 18 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Forage nutrient value is likely a balance of heritable and environmentally plastic variation (Santis and Chiaravalle ; Al Hayek et al . ). All plants sampled before the watering treatments were imposed exhibited similarly high nutrient value.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Ecotypic variation in forage nutrient value of a dominant prairie grass across a precipitation gradient

et al. 2016

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Ecotypic variation in forage nutrient value of a dominant grassland species, Andropogon gerardii Vitman (big bluestem), was quantified across a longitudinal precipitation gradient of the US Great Plains. Ecotypic variation of A. gerardii has been documented across this gradient, but the extent to which forage nutrient value differs among ecotypes is poorly known. Seven indicators of forage nutrient value (neutral detergent fiber [NDF], acid detergent fiber [ADF], in‐vitro dry matter digestibility [IVDMD], crude protein [CP], crude fat [CF], ash content) and relative feed value [RFV] were examined in 12 populations representing four ecotypes corresponding with distinct climate regions: eastern Colorado, central Kansas, eastern Kansas and southern Illinois. Vegetative material of A. gerardii was collected from each population in July 2010. A greenhouse study tested the effect of watering regime on seedlings of the ecotypes from three of the precipitation regions grown under controlled conditions. Forage nutrient value indicators nitrogen and CP increased, and ADF decreased east to west, while IVDMD decreased across the gradient corresponding with less annual precipitation. The greenhouse experiment showed that sampling before and after water treatment affected forage nutrient value measurements, with the exception of NDF and CF. Nutrient value was most related to soil moisture and phenology, with smaller differences among ecotypes. Nutrient value of populations from the southern Illinois ecotype changed the least in response to variation in soil moisture. The southern Illinois ecotype will likely maintain forge nutrient value under variable precipitation projected to occur with climate change better than the ecotypes from more westerly parts of the range of A. gerardii.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Ecotypic variation in forage nutrient value of a dominant prairie grass across a precipitation gradient

et al. 2016

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“…This is in line with previous reports showing differences in facilitation effects on the subordinate community composition between different phenotypes of the same species (e.g., Michalet et al., ; Schöb et al., ). However, in contrast to such reports, we do not have evidence that our two C. galianoi phenotypes occupy different topographical microhabitats that could have selected for different genotypes (e.g ., Al Hayek et al., and Michalet et al., ). We suggest that differences between phenotypes, and parallel changes in subordinate communities, were therefore due to differences in shrub age (i.e., shrub ontogeny).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Several studies in alpine systems have documented contrasting effects of different phenotypes of foundation species on subordinate species (Al Hayek, Maalouf, Touzard, & Michalet, ; Al Hayek, Touzard, Le Bagousse‐Pinguet, & Michalet, ; Al Hayek et al., ; Bonanomi et al., ; Michalet, Maalouf, & Hayek, ; Michalet et al., ). However, the mechanisms underlying these effects are still poorly understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The balance of canopy and soil effects determines intraspecific differences in foundation species’ effects on associated plants

et al. 2018

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The impact of plant–plant interactions on species diversity patterns has been broadly addressed in stressful environments, such as alpine ecosystems, where foundation species promote species richness by creating habitat for other species. However, foundation species with contrasting phenotypes might modify the microhabitat differently, which would alter the subordinate community composition, and coincide with distinct feedback effects of those subordinate species on the foundation species. However, the precise interaction mechanisms that facilitate species are not fully understood, especially the relative contribution of above‐ and below‐ground compartments of foundation species to subordinate species and the potential feedbacks they receive. We explored whether two contrasted canopy phenotypes (tight and loose) of the shrub Cytisus galianoi differed in their effects on the microhabitat and on subordinate plant community composition in a dry subalpine system. We also experimentally distinguished the relative contribution of above‐ (canopy) and below‐ground (soil) effects of C. galianoi on the most frequent subordinate species, Festuca indigesta, as well as the reciprocal effects of F. indigesta on C. galianoi. We performed observational and manipulative experiments to assess the influence of phenotypic differences of the shrub on understorey microhabitat and subordinate plant community composition. Reciprocal effects were assessed by removing either F. indigesta from the understorey of the two shrub phenotypes or the C. galianoi canopy from the immediate vicinity of F. indigesta. The two C. galianoi phenotypes differed in mean values of functional traits (like stem density or plant height), modified their understorey microhabitats differently and hosted distinct subordinate communities. Loose phenotypes had more positive effects on community composition and diversity than tight phenotypes. In addition, tight phenotypes simultaneously showed both more positive above‐ground and more negative below‐ground effects on F. indigesta than loose phenotypes. There were no significant feedback effects of F. indigesta on C. galianoi. The two phenotypes of the foundation species C. galianoi showed contrasting effects on the subordinate plant community: Compared to the tight phenotype, the loose phenotype had higher associated species diversity and reduced reciprocal interaction intensities above‐ and below‐ground with the subordinate species F. indigesta. This highlights the impact of phenotypic variation for plant interactions and community‐level diversity. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13139/suppinfo is available for this article.

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“…At the same time and at each site, cushions of T. caespitosum become more convex and tighter from the more sheltered and mild loose habitat to the more exposed and stressful tight habitat, as observed for other alpine cushion species displaying similar phenotypic differentiation between loose and tight phenotypes (Michalet et al , Al Hayek et al , ). Cross‐transplantation experiments and reciprocal common‐gardens allow disentangling environmental plasticity effects from heritable effects, which are both likely to be involved in such phenotypic differentiation along small‐ or large‐scale environmental gradients (Al Hayek et al ). However, because most alpine cushion plants are too slow‐growing to be tested in such design, Al Hayek et al () proposed that a consistency of phenotypic effects observed along climate stress gradients suggests a likely heritability of phenotypic differentiation occurring at small scale.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenotypic effects of the nurse Thylacospermum caespitosum on dependent plant species along regional climate stress gradients

Jiang

Michalet

Chen

et al. 2017

Oikos

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Contrasting phenotypes of alpine cushion species have been recurrently described in several mountain ranges along small‐scale topography gradients, with tight competitive phenotypes in stressful convex topography and loose facilitative phenotypes in sheltered concave topography. The consistency of phenotypic effects along large‐scale climate stress gradients have been proposed as a test of the likely genetic bases of the differences observed at small‐scale. Inversely, plastic phenotypic effects are more likely to vanish at some points along climate stress gradients. We tested this hypothesis for two phenotypes of the alpine cushion species Thylacospermum caespitosum at four points along regional gradients of cold and drought stress in northwest China. We measured the traits of the two cushion phenotypes and quantified their associated plant communities and environmental variables along the regional temperature and aridity gradients. Cushion height, convexity and stem density overall showed significant effect of phenotypes. Difference in tightness of cushions between phenotypes was consistent across climate conditions, whereas differences in cushion convexity and height between phenotypes increased with increasing cold stress. Phenotypic effects on species richness and abundance were consistent along both climate gradients but not effects on species composition, while there were no phenotypic effects on environmental variables. Additionally, RII (relative interaction index) curves were linear along the drought gradient but unimodal along the temperature gradient, likely due to the occurrence of contrasting species pools at the different sites. We conclude that the consistency of phenotypic effects of T. caespitosum was high for species richness and abundance and mainly explained by differences in interference mediated by likely heritable differences in cushion tightness. Additionally, our study shows that the shapes of the relationship between plant responses to neighbours and environmental stresses are not necessarily driven by niche‐based deterministic factors.

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Disentangling the heritable and plastic components of the competitive and facilitative effects of an alpine foundation species

Cited by 18 publications

References 67 publications

Ecotypic variation in forage nutrient value of a dominant prairie grass across a precipitation gradient

Ecotypic variation in forage nutrient value of a dominant prairie grass across a precipitation gradient

The balance of canopy and soil effects determines intraspecific differences in foundation species’ effects on associated plants

Phenotypic effects of the nurse Thylacospermum caespitosum on dependent plant species along regional climate stress gradients

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