Facilitation of vascular plants by cushion mosses in high-Andean communities

Gavini, Sabrina S.; Suarez, Guillermo Martin; Ezcurra, Cecilia; Aizen, Marcelo A.

doi:10.1007/s00035-019-00222-6

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Many cushion plants are also reported as pioneer species, such as S. oppositifolia (Erschbamer and Mayer 2011), Thylacospermum caespitosum (Dvorský et al 2013), Azorella selago (Aubert et al 2014), Philonotis esquelensis, Bryum pseudotriquetrum, and Pohlia wahlenbergii (Gavini et al 2019). Their low dome-shaped growth form often beneficial to colonize harsh and barren environments (Aubert et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cushion plant Silene acaulis is a pioneer species at abandoned coal piles in the High Arctic, Svalbard

Lee

2021

j ecology environ

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Background Abandoned coal piles after the closure of mines have a potential negative influence on the environment, such as soil acidification and heavy metal contamination. Therefore, revegetation by efficient species is required. For this, we wanted to identify the role of Silene acaulis in the succession of coal piles as a pioneer and a nurse plant. S. acaulis is a well-studied cushion plant living in the Arctic and alpine environments in the northern hemisphere. It has a highly compact cushion-like form and hosts more plant species under its canopy by ameliorating stressful microhabitats. In this research, we surveyed vegetation cover on open plots and co-occurring species within S. acaulis cushions in coal piles with different slope aspects and a control site where no coal was found. The plant cover and the similarity of communities among sites were compared. Also, the interaction effects of S. acaulis were assessed by rarefaction curves. Results S. acaulis was a dominant species with the highest cover (6.7%) on the coal piles and occurred with other well-known pioneer species. Plant communities on the coal piles were significantly different from the control site. We found that the pioneer species S. acaulis showed facilitation, neutral, and competition effect in the north-east facing slope, the south-east facing slope, and the flat ground, respectively. This result was consistent with the stress gradient hypothesis because the facilitation only occurred on the north-east facing slope, which was the most stressed condition, although all the interactions observed were not statistically significant. Conclusions S. acaulis was a dominant pioneer plant in the succession of coal piles. The interaction effect of S. acaulis on other species depended on the slope and its direction on the coal piles. Overall, it plays an important role in the succession of coal piles in the High Arctic, Svalbard.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cushion plant Silene acaulis is a pioneer species at abandoned coal piles in the High Arctic, Svalbard

Lee

2021

j ecology environ

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“…This contradicts the findings of several studies along elevational gradients, which reported a notable shift from negative to positive plant-plant interactions with increasing harshness, as predicted by the original stress-gradient hypothesis of Bertness and Callaway (1994). However, most of these studies were conducted in high-elevation (Choler et al 2001, Callaway et al 2002, Cavieres et al 2002 or high-latitude ecosystems (Dorrmann and , Gavini et al 2019, where changes in elevation primary reflect a temperature gradient (Körner 2003), whereas the elevational gradient in this study is assumed to reflect a water limitation gradient. Facilitative plant interactions seem to play an important role when environmental conditions get colder, enhance local biodiversity and might even represent a future protection mechanism for alpine ecosystems (Cavieres et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Co-occurrence frequency in vegetation patches decreases towards the harsh edge along an arid volcanic elevational gradient

Eibes¹,

Eisenbacher²,

Beierkuhnlein³

et al. 2021

Frontiers of Biogeography

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Highlights • Different types of stress gradient may favour different types of biotic interactions (e.g., facilitation or competition); elevational gradients are typically related to changes in temperature. • We investigate an elevational gradient on La Palma, Canary Islands, where harshness inversely correlates with elevation because of aridity, using a novel approach combining a co-occurrence and network analysis. • We find a decrease of positive co-occurrences with increasing harshness, and different patterns for species richness and abundance. • Co-occurrence patterns and their drivers appear to differ depending on whether temperature or aridity determine the underlying harshness gradient. • Addressing the effects of harshness on co-occurrences helps to improve general hypotheses about biotic interactions.

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“…While vascular plants have largely been the focus of plant–plant interaction research, bryophytes can have facilitative or competitive interactions with vascular plants depending on multiple abiotic and biotic factors (Doxford et al., 2013; Gornall et al., 2011; Gough, 2006; Rehm et al., 2019; Sedia & Ehrenfeld, 2003; Soudzilovskaia et al., 2011; Staunch et al., 2012). In locations where bryophytes dominate the ground cover, such as in the arctic and boreal forest, bryophytes can structure the composition of vascular plant communities as they are often more tolerant of the stressful conditions than the vascular plants that grow among them (Gavini et al., 2019; Gornall et al., 2011; Gough, 2006). In fact, the recovery of native tree species could depend on the recovery of bryophytes in restored habitats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In locations where bryophytes dominate the ground cover, such as in the arctic and boreal forest, bryophytes can structure the composition of vascular plant communities as they are often more tolerant of the stressful conditions than the vascular plants that grow among them (Gavini et al, 2019;Gornall et al, 2011;Gough, 2006). In fact, the recovery of native tree species could depend on the recovery of bryophytes in restored habitats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant–plant interactions change during succession on nurse logs in a northern temperate rainforest

Woods

Maleta

Ortmann

2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Facilitation of vascular plants by cushion mosses in high-Andean communities

Cited by 25 publications

References 75 publications

Cushion plant Silene acaulis is a pioneer species at abandoned coal piles in the High Arctic, Svalbard

Cushion plant Silene acaulis is a pioneer species at abandoned coal piles in the High Arctic, Svalbard

Co-occurrence frequency in vegetation patches decreases towards the harsh edge along an arid volcanic elevational gradient

Plant–plant interactions change during succession on nurse logs in a northern temperate rainforest

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