When Climate Reshuffles Competitors: A Call for Experimental Macroecology

Alexander, Jake M.; Diez, Jeffrey M.; Hart, Simon P.; Levine, Jonathan M.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2016.08.003

Cited by 144 publications

(150 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…It will be exciting to disentangle these two components of the realized niche in future investigations. Repeating such analyses across large-scale environmental gradients should yield new insights into how trait spectra shape interspecific competition, niches and species coexistence at large spatial scales (Alexander, Diez, Hart, & Levine, 2016;Hart, Usinowicz, & Levine, 2017). Traits are known to affect how intraand interspecific competition alters individual demographic rates (e.g., basal area growth of individual trees; Kunstler et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional traits explain the Hutchinsonian niches of plant species

Treurnicht

Pagel

Tonnabel

et al. 2019

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Aim:The Hutchinsonian niche is a foundational concept in ecology and evolutionary biology that describes fundamental characteristics of any species: the global maximum population growth rate (r max ); the niche optimum (the environment for which r max is reached); and the niche width (the environmental range for which intrinsic population growth rates are positive). We examine whether these characteristics are related to inter-and intraspecific variation in functional traits.Location: Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. Time period: Present day.Major taxa studied: Twenty-six plant species (Proteaceae). Methods:We measured leaf, plant-architectural and seed traits across species geographical ranges. We then examined how species-mean traits are related to demographically derived niche characteristics of r max , in addition to niche optima and widths in five environmental dimensions, and how intraspecific trait variation is related to niche widths. Results:Interspecific trait variation generally exceeded range-wide intraspecific trait variation. Species-mean trait values were associated with variation in r max (R 2 = 0.27) but were more strongly related to niche optima (mean R 2 = 0.56). These relationships generally matched trait-environment associations described in the literature. Both species-mean traits and intraspecific trait variability were strongly related to niche widths (R 2 = 0.66 and 0.59, respectively). Moreover, niche widths increased with intraspecific trait variability. Overall, the different niche characteristics were associated with few, largely non-overlapping sets of traits. Main conclusions:Our study relating functional traits to Hutchinsonian niches demonstrates that key demographic properties of species relate to few traits with relatively strong effects. Our results further support the hypothesis that intraspecific trait variation increases species niche widths. Given that niche characteristics were related to distinct sets of traits, different aspects of environmental change might affect axes of trait variation independently. Trait-based studies of Hutchinsonian | 535 TREURNICHT ET al.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional traits explain the Hutchinsonian niches of plant species

Treurnicht

Pagel

Tonnabel

et al. 2019

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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“…In humid and hyper-humid high latitudes with high precipitation and low temperature, low salinity stress across the entire marsh leads to the cordgrass S. densiflora displacing S. fruticosa in both the low and high marsh. Replicated experiments across latitude would be needed to further our understanding of these mechanisms (see Alexander, Diez, Hart, & Levine, 2016). In addition, it should be noted that consumer pressure can also vary across latitude in coastal wetlands (Alberti et al, 2007;He & Silliman, 2015 and can mediate plant zonation in salt marshes (He, Altieri, & Cui, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeography of salt marsh plant zonation on the Pacific coast of South America

Fariña

Silliman

et al. 2017

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the biogeography of plant zonation in salt marshes on the Pacific coast of South America; to examine whether salt marsh plant zonation varies with latitude; and to explore the relative importance of climatic, tidal, edaphic and disturbance factors in explaining large-scale variation in salt marsh plant community structure.Location: A 2,000-km latitudinal gradient on the Pacific coast in Chile, with a climate shift from hyper-arid at low to hyper-humid at high latitudes.Methods: Plant zonation was quantified in field surveys of ten marshes. Climate, tidal regimes, edaphic factors and disturbances (tsunami and rainfall floods) were determined. We used multivariate analyses to explore their relative importance in explaining large-scale variation in salt marsh plant community structure.Results: Across latitude, marshes were dominated by distinct plant communities in different climate regions, especially at the extreme dry and wet latitudes. Intertidal plant species zonation was present in hyper-arid and semi-arid climates, but not in arid, humid and hyper-humid climates. Latitudinal variation in low-marsh plant communities (regularly flooded at high tide) was largely a function of precipitation, while at high marshes (never flooded at high tide) latitudinal variation was explained with precipitation, temperature, tidal cycles, soil salinity and disturbances. These patterns appear to be mechanistically explained by extrapolating experimentally generated community assembly models and have implications for predicting responses to climate change.

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“…; Alexander et al . ). In this regard, variation in both the local distribution and predation rate of key species are particularly important, due to the large effects on marine communities (Sanford ; Harley ; Nogués‐Bravo & Rahbek ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Warmer temperatures reduce the influence of an important keystone predator

Bonaviri

Graham

Gianguzza

et al. 2017

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Predator-prey interactions may be strongly influenced by temperature variations in marine ecosystems. Consequently, climate change may alter the importance of predators with repercussions for ecosystem functioning and structure. In North-eastern Pacific kelp forests, the starfish Pycnopodia helianthoides is known to be an important predator of the purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. Here we investigated the influence of water temperature on this predator-prey interaction by: (i) assessing the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of both species across a temperature gradient in the northern Channel Islands, California, and (ii) investigating how the feeding rate of P. helianthoides on S. purpuratus is affected by temperature in laboratory tests. On average, at sites where mean annual temperatures were <14 °C, P. helianthoides were common, S. purpuratus was rare and kelp was persistent, whereas where mean annual temperatures exceeded 14 °C, P. helianthoides and kelp were rare and S. purpuratus abundant. Temperature was found to be the primary environmental factor influencing P. helianthoides abundance, and in turn P. helianthoides was the primary determinant of S. purpuratus abundance. In the laboratory, temperatures >16 °C (equivalent to summer temperatures at sites where P. helianthoides were rare) reduced predation rates regardless of predator and prey sizes, although larger sea urchins were consumed only by large starfishes. These results clearly demonstrate that the effect of P. helianthoides on S. purpuratus is strongly mediated by temperature, and that the local abundance and predation rate of P. helianthoides on sea urchins will likely decrease with future warming. A reduction in top-down control on sea urchins, combined with other expected impacts of climate change on kelp, poses significant risks for the persistence of kelp forests in the future.

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When Climate Reshuffles Competitors: A Call for Experimental Macroecology

Cited by 144 publications

References 67 publications

Functional traits explain the Hutchinsonian niches of plant species

Functional traits explain the Hutchinsonian niches of plant species

Biogeography of salt marsh plant zonation on the Pacific coast of South America

Warmer temperatures reduce the influence of an important keystone predator

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