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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...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2017
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5712206 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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