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Facilitative and competitive interaction components among New England salt marsh plants

Intra- and interspecific interactions can be broken down into facilitative and competitive components. The net interaction between two organisms is simply the sum of these counteracting elements. Disentangling the positive and negative components of species interactions is a critical step in advanci...

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Autores principales: Bruno, John F., Rand, Tatyana A., Emery, Nancy C., Bertness, Mark D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5712206/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29201563
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4049
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author Bruno, John F.
Rand, Tatyana A.
Emery, Nancy C.
Bertness, Mark D.
author_facet Bruno, John F.
Rand, Tatyana A.
Emery, Nancy C.
Bertness, Mark D.
author_sort Bruno, John F.
collection PubMed
description Intra- and interspecific interactions can be broken down into facilitative and competitive components. The net interaction between two organisms is simply the sum of these counteracting elements. Disentangling the positive and negative components of species interactions is a critical step in advancing our understanding of how the interaction between organisms shift along physical and biotic gradients. We performed a manipulative field experiment to quantify the positive and negative components of the interactions between a perennial forb, Aster tenuifolius, and three dominant, matrix-forming grasses and rushes in a New England salt marsh. Specifically, we asked whether positive and negative interaction components: (1) are unique or redundant across three matrix-forming species (two grasses; Distichlis spicata and Spartina patens, and one rush; Juncus gerardi), and (2) change across Aster life stages (seedling, juvenile, and adult). For adult Aster the strength of the facilitative component of the matrix-forb interaction was stronger than the competitive component for two of the three matrix species, leading to net positive interactions. There was no statistically significant variation among matrix species in their net or component effects. We found little difference in the effects of J. gerardi on Aster at later life-history stages; interaction component strengths did not differ between juveniles and adults. However, mortality of seedlings in neighbor removal plots was 100%, indicating a particularly strong and critical facilitative effect of matrix species on this forb during the earliest life stages. Overall, our results indicate that matrix forming grasses and rushes have important, yet largely redundant, positive net effects on Aster performance across its life cycle. Studies that untangle various components of interactions and their contingencies are critical to both expanding our basic understanding of community organization, and predicting how natural communities and their component parts will respond to environmental change.
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spelling pubmed-57122062017-12-03 Facilitative and competitive interaction components among New England salt marsh plants Bruno, John F. Rand, Tatyana A. Emery, Nancy C. Bertness, Mark D. PeerJ Ecology Intra- and interspecific interactions can be broken down into facilitative and competitive components. The net interaction between two organisms is simply the sum of these counteracting elements. Disentangling the positive and negative components of species interactions is a critical step in advancing our understanding of how the interaction between organisms shift along physical and biotic gradients. We performed a manipulative field experiment to quantify the positive and negative components of the interactions between a perennial forb, Aster tenuifolius, and three dominant, matrix-forming grasses and rushes in a New England salt marsh. Specifically, we asked whether positive and negative interaction components: (1) are unique or redundant across three matrix-forming species (two grasses; Distichlis spicata and Spartina patens, and one rush; Juncus gerardi), and (2) change across Aster life stages (seedling, juvenile, and adult). For adult Aster the strength of the facilitative component of the matrix-forb interaction was stronger than the competitive component for two of the three matrix species, leading to net positive interactions. There was no statistically significant variation among matrix species in their net or component effects. We found little difference in the effects of J. gerardi on Aster at later life-history stages; interaction component strengths did not differ between juveniles and adults. However, mortality of seedlings in neighbor removal plots was 100%, indicating a particularly strong and critical facilitative effect of matrix species on this forb during the earliest life stages. Overall, our results indicate that matrix forming grasses and rushes have important, yet largely redundant, positive net effects on Aster performance across its life cycle. Studies that untangle various components of interactions and their contingencies are critical to both expanding our basic understanding of community organization, and predicting how natural communities and their component parts will respond to environmental change. PeerJ Inc. 2017-11-29 /pmc/articles/PMC5712206/ /pubmed/29201563 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4049 Text en ©2017 Bruno et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Ecology
Bruno, John F.
Rand, Tatyana A.
Emery, Nancy C.
Bertness, Mark D.
Facilitative and competitive interaction components among New England salt marsh plants
title Facilitative and competitive interaction components among New England salt marsh plants
title_full Facilitative and competitive interaction components among New England salt marsh plants
title_fullStr Facilitative and competitive interaction components among New England salt marsh plants
title_full_unstemmed Facilitative and competitive interaction components among New England salt marsh plants
title_short Facilitative and competitive interaction components among New England salt marsh plants
title_sort facilitative and competitive interaction components among new england salt marsh plants
topic Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5712206/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29201563
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4049
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