Article
Ecology
Benjamin Schlau, Travis Huxman, Kailen Mooney, Jessica Pratt
Summary: Recent studies have shown that positive plant-plant species interactions can promote stable coexistence, emphasizing the importance of understanding the long-term interactions among species in evaluating facilitation's impacts on community structure.
Article
Soil Science
Shuang-Guo Zhu, Wesly Kiprotich, Zheng-Guo Cheng, Rui Zhou, Jing-Wei Fan, Hao Zhu, Wen-Ying Wang, Wei Wang, Ren-Qing Wang, Hong-Yan Tao, You-Cai Xiong
Summary: This study investigated plant-plant interaction and its effects on soil nutrient and microbial biomass in a maize-grass pea intercropping system along a soil phosphorus gradient. The results showed that intercropping had a facilitative effect on total community productivity. In phosphorus-deficient soils, mutual facilitation between maize and grass pea was observed. However, under phosphorus-sufficient conditions, maize acted as a facilitated species and grass pea acted as a facilitator. Phosphatase activity in the rhizosphere was enhanced in phosphorus-deficient soils, leading to increased phosphorus and nitrogen utilization. The microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus were also significantly increased in intercropping systems.
SOIL & TILLAGE RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Shuang-Guo Zhu, Hao Zhu, Rui Zhou, Wei Zhang, Wei Wang, Yi-Ning Zhou, Bao-Zhong Wang, Yu-Miao Yang, Jing Wang, Hong-Yan Tao, You-Cai Xiong
Summary: This study investigated the effects of fertilizer input gradient on the production efficiency of intercropping. The results showed that high fertilizer inputs decreased the relative productivity and nutrient uptake of intercropping. The experiments confirmed the reliability and universality of the meta-analysis conclusions.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Maral Bashirzadeh, Santiago Soliveres, Mohammad Farzam, Hamid Ejtehadi
Summary: The study found that nurse plants have a positive impact on the taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of alpine communities, as well as the functional and phylogenetic diversity of dryland communities. Nurse plants have the largest effects on biodiversity in moderate environmental conditions, which suggests their potential to protect biodiversity from the impacts of climate change in the future.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
T. Shen, L. Song, R. T. Corlett, A. Guisan, J. Wang, W. -Z. Ma, L. Mouton, A. Vanderpoorten, F. Collart
Summary: Epiphytic bryophyte community composition is primarily driven by environmental filtering, with a secondary role of biotic interactions and minimal contribution of competitive exclusion.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Adrian Zwolicki, Katarzyna Zmudczynska-Skarbek, Agata Weydmann-Zwolicka, Lech Stempniewicz
Summary: In the High Arctic, seabird colonies provide nutrients to the soil, leading to the development of separate plant communities and promoting plant growth. The nutrient richness of seabird colonies affects ecological niche segregation of plants. The study found that higher nutrient availability and species diversity were positively correlated with ecological niche overlap on the border between plant communities.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Travis G. Britton, Shane A. Richards, Melissa R. Gerwin, Rose E. Brinkhoff, Mark J. Hovenden
Summary: Neighbouring plants and climatic conditions interactively affect the growth of eucalypts. The competitive effects of neighbours on eucalypt growth are stronger under drier and hotter climate conditions. This finding has implications for future forest productivity under projected climate change.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Simon Boudsocq, Camille Cros, Philippe Hinsinger, Hans Lambers
Summary: This study evaluated the performance of a cereal-legume mixture on gradients of nitrogen and phosphorus availability. The results showed that intercropping increased biomass and nutrient content of wheat and white lupin compared to sole crops under all levels of nitrogen and phosphorus supply. However, the performance of white lupin decreased with increasing nitrogen and phosphorus supply, leading to a shift from mutualism to competition between the two species, and compensation mechanisms were observed.
Article
Ecology
Daniel Campbell, Paul Keddy
Summary: Plant zonation in wetlands is influenced by competition and physiological stresses. Experiment showed that competition had a strong effect under low flooding stress, but no facilitation effect under high flooding stress. Flooding duration alone controlled the lower limits of plants. Competition and physical stresses, but not facilitation, were found to control the zonation of emergent macrophytes along a flooding duration gradient in freshwater wetlands.
Article
Plant Sciences
Guangshuai Cui, Francisco I. Pugnaire, Liu Yang, Wanglin Zhao, Rita Ale, Wei Shen, Tianxiang Luo, Eryuan Liang, Lin Zhang
Summary: Shrub facilitates the survival, growth, and reproduction of understory species by buffering environmental extremes and improving limited resources in arid and semiarid regions. However, the importance of soil water and nutrient availability on shrub facilitation, and its trend along a drought gradient, have been relatively less addressed.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Chantal M. Hischier, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, Evelin Iseli, Jake M. Alexander
Summary: Deciphering plant interactions across environmental gradients is important for understanding plant community assembly and responses to environmental change. Both competition and facilitation play a role in plant-plant interactions along these gradients, with competition potentially strong at higher elevations in temperate mountain regions.
Article
Plant Sciences
Elizabeth H. Boughton, Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio, Patrick J. Bohlen
Summary: The stress gradient hypothesis predicts that competition will be important in productive environments, while facilitation will be common in environments with high stress. This study examines plant interactions in grazed wetlands, where consumer pressure and abiotic stress occur concurrently. Grazing interacts with wetland microhabitat to alter plant survival, with facilitated interactions on plant height apparent in grazed wetlands. Understanding how plant interactions change under different biotic and abiotic contexts is crucial for informing ecosystem restoration and management.
JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Ecology
David Nemer, Richard Michalet, Hugo Rande, Valerie Sappin-Didier, Florian Delerue
Summary: The study of plant-plant interactions along metal-pollution gradients is still in its early stages and has implications for restoration and theoretical perspectives. The mechanisms of facilitation in these stressed conditions are not well known. This study aims to understand the role of stress-tolerance in competitive and facilitative responses to neighbors along metal-pollution gradients using two ecotypes of Armeria muelleri and Agrostis capillaris. The results suggest that high size-plasticity of competitive and stress-intolerant species or ecotypes may explain their competitive effects in benign habitats and facilitative responses in stressed habitats.
Article
Plant Sciences
Beatriz A. Aguirre, Brian Hsieh, Samantha J. Watson, Alexandra J. Wright
Summary: The impact of drought on plant communities can be mitigated by plant diversity, but results are inconsistent and the effects of increased atmospheric VPD have been neglected. Experimental manipulation of atmospheric drought is crucial to understand the protective role of diversity in ecosystems.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jean-Baptiste Ledoux, Raouia Ghanem, Mathilde Horaud, Paula Lopez-Sendino, Valeria Romero-Soriano, Agostinho Antunes, Nathaniel Bensoussan, Daniel Gomez-Gras, Cristina Linares, Annie Machordom, Oscar Ocana, Jose Templado, Raphael Leblois, Jamila Ben Souissi, Joaquim Garrabou
Summary: This study investigates how eco-evolutionary processes shape genetic diversity and differentiation in the orange stony coral Astroides calycularis. The research reveals a decrease in genetic diversity and an increase in genetic differentiation from the Centre to the Eastern and Western Peripheries of the distribution range, with the highest genetic diversity found in populations from Zembra. The study suggests that postglacial range expansion hypothesis is more likely to explain the patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation than the central-peripheral hypothesis.
DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
(2021)