Journal ArticleDOI
Global shifts towards positive species interactions with increasing environmental stress
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A synthesis of 727 tests of the stress-gradient hypothesis in plant communities across the globe shows that plant interactions change with stress through an outright shift to facilitation (survival) or a reduction in competition (growth and reproduction).Abstract:
The study of positive species interactions is a rapidly evolving field in ecology. Despite decades of research, controversy has emerged as to whether positive and negative interactions predictably shift with increasing environmental stress as hypothesised by the stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH). Here, we provide a synthesis of 727 tests of the SGH in plant communities across the globe to examine its generality across a variety of ecological factors. Our results show that plant interactions change with stress through an outright shift to facilitation (survival) or a reduction in competition (growth and reproduction). In a limited number of cases, plant interactions do not respond to stress, but they never shift towards competition with stress. These findings are consistent across stress types, plant growth forms, life histories, origins (invasive vs. native), climates, ecosystems and methodologies, though the magnitude of the shifts towards facilitation with stress is dependent on these factors. We suggest that future studies should employ standardised definitions and protocols to test the SGH, take a multi-factorial approach that considers variables such as plant traits in addition to stress, and apply the SGH to better understand how species and communities will respond to environmental change.read more
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Cavity nesting birds along an urban-wildland gradient: is human facilitation structuring the bird community?
TL;DR: Flexible nest site selection and human facilitation provide new opportunities for native cavity-nesting birds in a rapidly changing world.
Journal ArticleDOI
A new family of standardized and symmetric indices for measuring the intensity and importance of plant neighbour effects
Rubén Díaz‐Sierra,Rubén Díaz‐Sierra,Mart Verwijmeren,Max Rietkerk,Víctor Resco de Dios,Mara Baudena +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, a new family of Neighbour Effect Indices (NIntA) is proposed to measure the net effect of neighbours on the performance of a target plant in terms of competition and facilitation between plants.
Journal ArticleDOI
Benefactor and allelopathic shrub species have different effects on the soil microbial community along an environmental severity gradient
Sara Hortal,Felipe Bastida,Felipe Bastida,José L. Moreno,Cristina Armas,Carlos F Garcia,Francisco I. Pugnaire +6 more
TL;DR: To test the hypotheses that microbial communities associated to benefactor and allelopathic shrubs would differ among them and that differences would increase with environmental severity, soil microbial biomass, activity and community composition under a benefactor shrub species, Retama sphaerocarpa, and in bare soil among plants (gaps) at three sites along an environmental severity gradient were characterized.
Journal ArticleDOI
Geographically variable biotic interactions and implications for species ranges
Regan Early,Sally A. Keith +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that macroecology should take advantage of "independent" data on the strength of biotic interactions measured by other disciplines, in order to capture a far wider array of taxa, locations and interaction types than are typically studied in macro-ecology.
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African wild ungulates compete with or facilitate cattle depending on season
TL;DR: This is the first experimental demonstration of either competitive or facilitative effects of an assemblage of native ungulates on domestic livestock in a savanna ecosystem, and a unique demonstration of a rainfall-dependent shift in competition-facilitation balance within any herbivore guild.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification
TL;DR: In this paper, a new global map of climate using the Koppen-Geiger system based on a large global data set of long-term monthly precipitation and temperature station time series is presented.
Journal ArticleDOI
World Map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated
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Book
Plant Strategies and Vegetation Processes
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present plant strategies in the established phase and the regenerative phase in the emerging phase, respectively, and discuss the relationship between the two phases: primary strategies and secondary strategies.
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