Global shifts towards positive species interactions with increasing environmental stress

Ecology Letters

Volumn 16, Issue 5, 2013, Pages 695-706

  He, Qiang ^a,b   Bertness, Mark D ^a   Altieri, Andrew H ^a  

^a BROWN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UNIVERSITY   (China)

Author keywords

Biotic interactions; Community ecology; Ecosystems and climates; Environmental stress; Facilitation; Invasive species; Meta analysis; Plant traits; The stress gradient hypothesis

Indexed keywords

COMMUNITY ECOLOGY; ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE; ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS; FACILITATION; INVASIVE SPECIES; LIFE HISTORY; META-ANALYSIS; PLANT COMMUNITY; REPRODUCTION; SURVIVAL;

ARTICLE; CLIMATE; ECOSYSTEM; ENVIRONMENT; FACTUAL DATABASE; META ANALYSIS; MORTALITY; MULTIFACTORIAL INHERITANCE; PHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS; PLANT PHYSIOLOGY;

CLIMATE; DATABASES, FACTUAL; ECOSYSTEM; ENVIRONMENT; MORTALITY; MULTIFACTORIAL INHERITANCE; PLANT PHYSIOLOGICAL PHENOMENA; STRESS, PHYSIOLOGICAL;

EID: 84876738378     PISSN: 1461023X     EISSN: 14610248     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12080     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. Armas, C. & Pugnaire, F.I. (2005). Plant interactions govern population dynamics in a semiarid plant community. J. Ecol., 93, 978-989.
2. Armas, C., Rodríguez-Echeverría, S. & Pugnaire, F.I. (2011). A field test of the stress-gradient hypothesis along an aridity gradient. J. Veg. Sci., 22, 818-827.
3. Badano, E.I., Villarroel, E., Bustamante, R.O., Marquet, P.A. & Cavieres, L.A. (2007). Ecosystem engineering facilitates invasions by exotic plants in high-Andean ecosystems. J. Ecol., 95, 682-688.
4. Bertness, M.D. & Callaway, R.M. (1994). Positive interactions in communities. Trends Ecol. Evol., 9, 191-193.
5. Bertness, M.D. & Ewanchuk, P.J. (2002). Latitudinal and climate-driven variation in the strength and nature of biological interactions in New England salt marshes. Oecologia, 132, 392-401.
6. Bertness, M.D. & Hacker, S.D. (1994). Physical stress and positive associations among plants. Am. Nat., 144, 363-372.
7. Bertness, M.D., Leonard, G., Levine, J.M. & Bruno, J.F. (1999). Climate-driven interactions among rocky intertidal organisms caught between a rock and a hot place. Oecologia, 120, 446-450.
8. Bockelmann, A.C. & Neuhaus, R. (1999). Competitive exclusion of Elymus athericus from a high-stress habitat in a European salt marsh. J. Ecol., 87, 503-513.
9. Borenstein, M., Hedges, L.V., Higgins, J.P.T. & Rothstein, H.R. (2009). Introduction to Meta-Analysis. Wiley, Chichester.
10. Bowker, M.A., Soliveres, S. & Maestre, F.T. (2010). Competition increases with abiotic stress and regulates the diversity of biological soil crusts. J. Ecol., 98, 551-560.
11. Bret-Harte, M.S., García, E.A., Scaré, V.M., Whorley, J.R., Wagern, J.L., Lipper, S.C. et al. (2004). Plant and soils responses to neighbour removal and fertilization in Alaskan tussock tundra. J. Ecol., 92, 635-647.
12. Brooker, R.B. (2006). Plant-plant interactions and environmental change. New Phytol., 171, 271-284.
13. Brooker, R.W. & Callaghan, F.V. (1998). The balance between positive and negative interactions and its relationship to environmental gradients: a model. Oikos, 81, 196-207.
14. Brooker, R.W., Maestre, F.T., Callaway, R.M., Lortie, C.L., Cavieres, L.A., Kunstler, G. et al. (2008). Facilitation in plant communities: the past, the present, and the future. J. Ecol., 96, 18-34.
15. Bruno, J.F., Stachowicz, J.J. & Bertness, M.D. (2003). Inclusion of facilitation into ecological theory. Trends Ecol. Evol., 18, 119-125.
16. Butterfield, B.J. (2009). Effects of facilitation on community stability and dynamics: synthesis and future directions. J. Ecol., 97, 1192-1201.
17. Caldwell, M.M. & Richards, H.J. (1986). Competing root systems: morphology and models of absorption. In: On the Economy of Plant Form and Function (eds Givnish, T.J.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 251-273.
18. Callaway, R.M. (2007). Positive Interactions and Interdependence in Plant Communities. Springer, Dordrecht.
19. Callaway, R.M. & Walker, L.R. (1997). Competition and facilitation: a synthetic approach to interactions in plant communities. Ecology, 78, 1958-1965.
20. Callaway, R.M., Brooker, R.W., Choler, P., Kikvidze, Z., Lortie, C.J., Michalet, R. et al. (2002). Positive interactions among alpine plants increase with stress. Nature, 417, 844-848.
21. Castanho, C.T., Oliveira, A.A. & Prado, P.I. (2012). The importance of plant life form on spatial associations along a subtropical coastal dune gradient. J. Veg. Sci., 23, 952-961.
22. Cavieres, L.A. & Badano, E.I. (2009). Do facilitative interactions increase species richness at the entire community level?. J. Ecol., 97, 1181-1191.
23. Cavieres, L.A. & Sierra-Almeida, A. (2012). Facilitative interactions do not wane with warming at high elevations in the Andes. Oecologia, 170, 575-584.
24. Choler, P., Michalet, R. & Callaway, R.M. (2001). Competition and facilitation on gradients in alpine communities. Ecology, 82, 3295-3308.
25. Cornelissen, J.H.C., Lavorel, S., Garnier, E., Díaz, S., Buchmann, N., Gurvich, D.E. et al. (2003). A handbook of protocols for standardised and easy measurement of plant functional traits worldwide. Austral. J. Bot., 51, 335-380.
26. Dohn, J., Dembélé, F., Karembé, M., Moustakas, A., Amévor, K.A. & Hanan, N.P. (2013). Tree effects on grass growth in savannas: competition, facilitation and the stress-gradient hypothesis. J. Ecol., 101, 202-209.
27. Dullinger, S., Dirnböck, T., Köck, R., Hochbichler, E., Englisch, T., Sauberer, N. et al. (2005). Interactions among tree-line conifers: differential effects of pine on spruce and larch. J. Ecol., 93, 948-957.
28. Ernst, M.O. & Banks, M.S. (2002). Species diversity enhances ecosystem functioning through interspecific facilitation. Nature, 415, 426-429.
29. Fowler, N. (1986). The role of competition in plant communities in arid and semiarid regions. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 17, 89-110.
30. Ganade, G. & Brown, V.K. (2002). Succession in old pastures of central Amazonia: role of soil fertility and plant litter. Ecology, 83, 743-754.
31. Gaudet, C.L. & Keddy, P.A. (1988). Predicting competitive ability from plant traits: a comparative approach. Nature, 334, 242-243.
32. Gibson, L., Lee, T.M., Koh, L.P., Brook, B.W., Gardner, T.A., Barlow, J. et al. (2011). Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity. Nature, 478, 378-381.
33. Goldberg, D., Novoplansky, A., Gurevitch, J. & Stewart-Oaten, A. (1999). Empirical approaches to quantifying interaction intensity: competition and facilitation along productivity gradients. Ecology, 80, 1118-1131.
34. Gómez-Aparicio, L. (2009). The role of plant interactions in the restoration of degraded ecosystems: a meta-analysis across life-forms and ecosystems. J. Ecol., 97, 1202-1214.
35. Granda, E., Escudero, A., de la Cruz, M. & Valladares, F. (2012). Juvenile-adult tree associations in a continental Mediterranean ecosystem: no evidence for sustained and general facilitation at increased aridity. J. Veg. Sci., 23, 164-175.
36. Grime, J.P. (1979). Plant Strategies and Vegetation Processes. Wiley, Chichester.
37. Gross, N., Liancourt, P., Choler, P., Suding, K.N. & Lavorel, S. (2010). Strain and vegetation effects on local limiting resources explain the outcomes of biotic interactions. Perspect. Plant Ecol. Evol., 12, 9-19.
38. Harley, C.D.G. (2011). Climate change, keystone predation, and biodiversity loss. Science, 334, 1124-1127.
39. Harmon, J.P., Moran, N.A. & Ives, A.R. (2009). Species response to environmental change: impacts of food web interactions and evolution. Science, 323, 1347-1350.
40. Hastings, A. (1987). Can competition be detected using species co-occurrence data?. Ecology, 68, 117-123.
41. Hautier, Y., Niklaus, P.A. & Hector, A. (2009). Competition for light causes plant biodiversity loss after eutrophication. Science, 324, 636-638.
42. He, Q., Cui, B. & An, Y. (2011). The importance of facilitation in the zonation of shrubs along a coastal salinity gradient. J. Veg. Sci., 22, 828-836.
43. He, Q., Cui, B., Bertness, M.D. & An, Y. (2012). Testing the importance of plant strategies on facilitation using congeners in a coastal community. Ecology, 93, 2023-2029.
44. Holmgren, M. & Scheffer, M. (2010). Strong facilitation in mild environments: the stress gradient hypothesis revisited. J. Ecol., 98, 1269-1275.
45. Holzapfel, C., Tielbörger, K., Pavag, H.A., Nigel, J. & Sternbeug, H. (2006). Annual plant-shrub interactions along an aridity gradient. Basic Appl. Ecol., 7, 268-279.
46. Howard, T.G. & Goldberg, D.E. (2001). Competitive response hierarchies for germination, growth, and survival and their influence on abundance. Ecology, 82, 979-990.
47. Kawai, T. & Tokeshi, M. (2007). Testing the facilitation-competition paradigm under the stress-gradient hypothesis: decoupling multiple stress factors. Proc. Biol. Sci., 274, 2503-2508.
48. Kikvidze, Z., Suzuki, M. & Brooker, R. (2011). Importance versus intensity of ecological effects: why context matters. Trends Ecol. Evol., 26, 383-388.
49. Kottek, M., Grieser, J., Beck, C., Rudolf, B. & Rubel, F. (2006). World map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated. Meteorol. Z., 15, 259-263.
50. Koyama, A. & Tsuyuzaki, S. (2013). Facilitation by tussock-forming species on seedling establishment collapses in an extreme drought year in a post-mined Sphagnum peatland. J. Veg. Sci., DOI: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2012.01474.x.
51. Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Y., Gross, E.M. & Straile, D. (2011). Release from competition and protection determine the outcome of plant interactions along a grazing gradient. Oikos, 121, 95-101.
52. Levenbach, S. (2009). Grazing intensity influences the strength of an associational refuge on temperate reefs. Oecologia, 159, 181-190.
53. Levine, J.M., Vilà, M., D'Antonio, C.M., Dukes, J.S., Grigulis, K. & Lavorel, S. (2003). Mechanisms underlying the impacts of exotic plant invasions. Proc. Biol. Sci., 270, 775-781.
54. Liancourt, P., Callaway, R.M. & Michalet, R. (2005). Stress tolerance and competitive-response ability determine the outcome of biotic interactions. Ecology, 86, 1611-1618.
55. Lortie, C.J. (2010). Synthetic analysis of the stress-gradient hypothesis. In: Positive Plant Interactions and Community Dynamics. (ed. Pugnaire, F.I.). CRC, Boca, Raton, pp. 125-148.
56. Lortie, C.J. & Callaway, R.M. (2006). Re-analysis of meta-analysis: support for the stress-gradient hypothesis. J. Ecol., 94, 7-16.
57. Maestre, F.T. & Cortina, J. (2004). Do positive interactions increase with abiotic stress? A test from a semi-arid steppe. Proc. Biol. Sci., 271, S331-S333.
58. Maestre, F.T., Valladares, F. & Reynolds, J.F. (2005). Is the change of plant-plant interactions with abiotic stress predictable? A meta-analysis of field results in arid environments. J. Ecol., 93, 748-757.
59. Maestre, F.T., Callaway, R.M., Valladares, F. & Lortie, C.J. (2009). Refining the stress-gradient hypothesis for competition and facilitation in plant communities. J. Ecol., 97, 199-205.
60. Malkinson, D. & Tielbörger, K. (2010). What does the stress-gradient hypothesis predict? Resolving the discrepancies. Oikos, 119, 1546-1552.
61. Marion, G.M., Miller, P.C., Kummerow, J. & Oechel, W.C. (1982). Competition for nitrogen in a tussock tundra ecosystem. Plant Soil, 66, 317-327.
62. Menge, B.A. & Sutherland, J.P. (1987). Community regulation: variation in disturbance, competition, and predation in relation to gradients of environmental stress and recruitment. Am. Nat., 130, 730-757.
63. Michalet, R. (2006). Is facilitation in arid environments the result of direct or complex interactions? New Phytol., 169, 1-2.
64. Michalet, R. (2007). Highlighting the multiple drivers of change in interactions along stress gradients. New Phytol., 173, 3-6.
65. Miriti, M.N. (2006). Ontogenetic shift from facilitation to competition in a desert shrub. J. Ecol., 94, 973-979.
66. Mulder, C., Uliassi, D. & Doak, D. (2001). Physical stress and diversity-productivity relationships: the role of positive interactions. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 98, 6704-6708.
67. Odadi, W.O., Karachi, M.K., Abdulrazak, S.A. & Young, T.P. (2011). African wild ungulates compete with or facilitate cattle depending on season. Science, 333, 1753-1755.
68. Pages, J. & Michalet, R. (2003). A test of the indirect facilitation model in a temperate hardwood forest of the northern French Alps. J. Ecol., 91, 932-940.
69. Pennings, S.C. & Callaway, R.M. (1992). Salt marsh plant zonation: the relative importance of competition and physical factors. Ecology, 73, 681-690.
70. Peterson, D.W., Reich, P.B. & Wrage, K.J. (2007). Plant functional group responses to fire frequency and tree canopy cover gradients in oak savannas and woodlands. J. Veg. Sci., 18, 3-12.
71. R Development Core Team. (2011). The R Project for Statistical Computing, version 2.13. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
72. Reisman-Berman, O. (2007). Age-related change in canopy traits shift conspecific facilitation to interference in a semi-arid shrubland. Ecography, 30, 459-470.
73. le Roux, P.C. & McGeoch, M.A. (2010). Interaction intensity and importance along two stress gradients: adding shape to the stress-gradient hypothesis. Oecologia, 62, 733-745.
74. Sax, D.F. & Gaines, S.D. (2008). Species invasions and extinction: the future of native biodiversity on islands. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 105, 11490-11497.
75. Shipley, B. (2010). From Plant Traits to Vegetation Structure. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
76. Smit, C., Vandenberghe, C., den Ouden, J. & Muller-Scharer, H. (2007). Nurse plants, tree saplings and grazing pressure: changes in facilitation along a biotic environmental gradient. Oecologia, 152, 265-273.
77. Smit, C., Rietkerk, M. & Wassen, M.J. (2009). Inclusion of biotic stress (consumer pressure) alters predictions from the stress gradient hypothesis. J. Ecol., 97, 1215-1219.
78. Sthultz, C.M., Gehring, C.A. & Whitham, T.G. (2007). Shifts from competition to facilitation between a foundation tree and a pioneer shrub across spatial and temporal scales in a semiarid woodland. New Phytol., 173, 135-145.
79. Tewksbury, J.J. & Lloyd, J.D. (2001). Positive interactions under nurse-plants: spatial scale, stress gradients and benefactor size. Oecologia, 127, 425-434.
80. Tielbörger, K. & Kadmon, R. (2000). Temporal environmental variation tips the balance between facilitation and interference in desert plants. Ecology, 81, 1544-1553.
81. Tilman, D. (1988). Plant Strategies and the Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
82. Tylianakis, J.M., Didham, R.K., Bascompte, J. & Wardle, D.A. (2008). Global change and species interactions in terrestrial ecosystems. Ecol. Lett., 11, 1351-1363.
83. Van Uytvanck, J., Maes, D., Vandenhaute, D. & Hoffmann, M. (2008). Restoration of woodpasture on former agricultural land: the importance of safe sites and time gaps before grazing for tree seedlings. Biol. Conserv., 141, 78-88.
84. Viechtbauer, W. (2010). Conducting meta-analyses in R with the metafor package. J. Stat. Softw., 36, 1-48.
85. Vilà, M. & Weiner, J. (2004). Are invasive plant species better competitors than native plant species? Evidence from pairwise experiments. Oikos, 105, 229-238.
86. Violle, C., Navas, M.-L., Vile, D., Kazakou, E., Fortunel, C., Hummel, I. et al. (2007). Let the concept of trait be functional!. Oikos, 116, 882-892.
87. Wang, Y., Chu, C., Maestre, F. & Wang, G. (2008). On the relevance of facilitation in alpine meadow communities: an experimental assessment with multiple species differing in their ecological optimum. Acta Oecol., 33, 108-113.
88. Yang, L., Liu, N., Ren, H. & Wang, J. (2009). Facilitation by two exotic Acacia: Acacia auriculiformis and Acacia mangium as nurse plants in South China. For. Ecol. Manage., 257, 1786-1793.