Positive plant interactions in the Iberian Southeast: Mechanisms, environmental gradients, and ecosystem function

Pugnaire, Francisco I.; Armas, Cristina; Maestre, Fernando T.

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2011.01.016

Cited by 129 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 109 publications

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“…In some semiarid ecosystems, shrubs create ''islands of fertility'' where increased nutrient availability below shrubs provides refugia for species sensitive to low nutrient availability (Maestre et al 2009, Pugnaire et al 2011. Indeed, shrub establishment in the Mediterranean Basin and Australia has been shown to increase species richness by stabilizing soil and attenuating water stress (Thompson and Eldridge 2005, Maestre et al 2009, Pugnaire et al 2011. In North American grasslands, however, resource island formation is also accompanied by a decrease in resources in inter-shrub spaces, which might outweigh the positive effects of shrub dominance (Schlesinger et al 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Woody encroachment decreases diversity across North American grasslands and savannas

Ratajczak

Nippert

Collins

2012

Ecology

430

307

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Abstract. Woody encroachment is a widespread and acute phenomenon affecting grasslands and savannas worldwide. We performed a meta-analysis of 29 studies from 13 different grassland/savanna communities in North America to determine the consequences of woody encroachment on plant species richness. In all 13 communities, species richness declined with woody plant encroachment (average decline ¼ 45%). Species richness declined more in communities with higher precipitation (r 2 ¼ 0.81) and where encroachment was associated with a greater change in annual net primary productivity (ANPP; r 2 ¼ 0.69). Based on the strong positive correlation between precipitation and ANPP following encroachment (r 2 ¼ 0.87), we hypothesize that these relationships occur because water-limited woody plants experience a greater physiological and demographic release as precipitation increases. The observed relationship between species richness and ANPP provides support for the theoretical expectation that a trade-off occurs between richness and productivity in herbaceous communities. We conclude that woody plant encroachment leads to significant declines in species richness in North American grassland/savanna communities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Woody encroachment decreases diversity across North American grasslands and savannas

Ratajczak

Nippert

Collins

2012

Ecology

430

307

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“…However, most of those studies are either extrapolations of individual responses to a community scale, or studies focused on the effect of nurse species on biodiversity, but not on the opposite, i.e., M a n u s c r i p t 4 on the capacity of species assemblages to act as nurses (but see Castillo et al, 2010 for an analysis of the effect of phylogenetic distance of the nurse community on seedling 50 establishment). Drylands are not the exception and pairwise approaches dominate the study of positive interactions (Pugnaire et al, 2011). However, species in drylands do not occur in isolation.…”

Section: Introduction 30mentioning

confidence: 99%

Community attributes determine facilitation potential in a semi-arid steppe

Amat

Cortina

Zubcoff

2015

Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics

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Please cite this article as: Amat, B., Cortina, J., Zubcoff, J.J.,Community attributes determine facilitation potential in a semi-arid steppe., Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees. 2014.10.001 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. interactions. Conversely, the interaction with other co-occurring species has scarcely been addressed, despite the fact that the entire community may affect plant performance. We used woody vegetation patches as models to evaluate community facilitation in semi-arid steppes. 5We characterized biotic and physical attributes of 53 woody patches (patch size, litter accumulation, canopy density, vegetation cover, species number and identity, and phylogenetic distance), and soil fertility (organic C and total N), and evaluated their relative importance for the performance of seedlings of Pistacia lentiscus, a keystone woody species in western Mediterranean steppes. Seedlings were planted underneath the patches, and on 10 their northern and southern edges. Woody patches positively affected seedling survival but not seedling growth. Soil fertility was higher underneath the patches than elsewhere. Physical and biotic attributes of woody patches affected seedling survival, but these effects depended on microsite conditions. The composition of the community of small shrubs and perennial grasses growing underneath the patches controlled seedling performance. An increase in Stipa 15 tenacissima and a decrease in Brachypodium retusum increased the probability of survival.The cover of these species and other small shrubs, litter depth and community phylogenetic distance, were also related to seedling survival. Seedlings planted on the northern edge of the patches were mostly affected by attributes of the biotic community. These traits were of lesser importance in seedlings planted underneath and in the southern edge of patches, suggesting 20 that constraints to seedling establishment differed within the patches. Our study highlights the importance of taking into consideration community attributes over pair-wise interactions when evaluating the outcome of ecological interactions in multi-specific communities, as they

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“…Likewise, this issue is especially relevant and common in semi and semi-arid shrub lands [11,21,22]. Aggregated plant patterns in semiarid shrub lands have been variously attributed to facilitation [21,23,24], habitat heterogeneity [25], disturbance [26] and localized seed dispersal [27]. In the present study, H. ammodendron (S), H. ammodendron (J), and H. ammodendron (M) all showed aggregated distribution on small scales.…”

Section: Spatial Patternsmentioning

confidence: 50%

Point Pattern Analysis of Different Life Stages of Haloxylon ammodendron in Desert-oasis Ecotone

Wang¹,

Zhang²,

Chu³

2014

Pol. J. Environ. Stud.

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Positive plant interactions in the Iberian Southeast: Mechanisms, environmental gradients, and ecosystem function

Cited by 129 publications

References 109 publications

Woody encroachment decreases diversity across North American grasslands and savannas

Woody encroachment decreases diversity across North American grasslands and savannas

Community attributes determine facilitation potential in a semi-arid steppe

Point Pattern Analysis of Different Life Stages of Haloxylon ammodendron in Desert-oasis Ecotone

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