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Facilitation influences patterns of perennial species abundance and richness in a subtropical dune system

Positive interactions in plant communities are under-reported in subtropical systems most likely because they are not identified as stressful environments. However, environmental factors or disturbance can limit plant growth in any system and lead to stressful conditions. For instance, salinity and...

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Autores principales: Dalotto, Cecilia E S, Sühs, Rafael B, Dechoum, Michele S, Pugnaire, Francisco I, Peroni, Nivaldo, Castellani, Tânia T
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5888537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29644027
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/ply017
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author Dalotto, Cecilia E S
Sühs, Rafael B
Dechoum, Michele S
Pugnaire, Francisco I
Peroni, Nivaldo
Castellani, Tânia T
author_facet Dalotto, Cecilia E S
Sühs, Rafael B
Dechoum, Michele S
Pugnaire, Francisco I
Peroni, Nivaldo
Castellani, Tânia T
author_sort Dalotto, Cecilia E S
collection PubMed
description Positive interactions in plant communities are under-reported in subtropical systems most likely because they are not identified as stressful environments. However, environmental factors or disturbance can limit plant growth in any system and lead to stressful conditions. For instance, salinity and low nutrient and water availability generate a gradient of stressful conditions in coastal systems depending on distance to shore. In a tropical coastal system in SE Brazil, we aimed to assess whether Guapira opposita, a shrub common in restinga environments, acted as nurse involved in ecological succession and which factors influenced its facilitation process. We sampled perennial species above 10 cm in height under the canopy of 35 G. opposita individuals and in neighbouring open areas. Shrub height, canopy area and distance to freshwater bodies were measured in the field, and distance to the ocean was obtained from aerial images. In addition, we measured the distance to the closest forest patch as a potential source of seeds. Plant abundance and species richness were higher under the canopy of G. opposita than in open areas. Facilitation by G. opposita was mainly determined by shrub height, which had a positive relationship with woody and bromeliads abundance and species richness while there was no relationship with the other factors. Overall, our data evidence that tropical environments may be highly stressful for plants and that nurse species play a key role in the regeneration of restinga environments, where their presence is critical to maintain ecosystem diversity and function.
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spelling pubmed-58885372018-04-11 Facilitation influences patterns of perennial species abundance and richness in a subtropical dune system Dalotto, Cecilia E S Sühs, Rafael B Dechoum, Michele S Pugnaire, Francisco I Peroni, Nivaldo Castellani, Tânia T AoB Plants Research Article Positive interactions in plant communities are under-reported in subtropical systems most likely because they are not identified as stressful environments. However, environmental factors or disturbance can limit plant growth in any system and lead to stressful conditions. For instance, salinity and low nutrient and water availability generate a gradient of stressful conditions in coastal systems depending on distance to shore. In a tropical coastal system in SE Brazil, we aimed to assess whether Guapira opposita, a shrub common in restinga environments, acted as nurse involved in ecological succession and which factors influenced its facilitation process. We sampled perennial species above 10 cm in height under the canopy of 35 G. opposita individuals and in neighbouring open areas. Shrub height, canopy area and distance to freshwater bodies were measured in the field, and distance to the ocean was obtained from aerial images. In addition, we measured the distance to the closest forest patch as a potential source of seeds. Plant abundance and species richness were higher under the canopy of G. opposita than in open areas. Facilitation by G. opposita was mainly determined by shrub height, which had a positive relationship with woody and bromeliads abundance and species richness while there was no relationship with the other factors. Overall, our data evidence that tropical environments may be highly stressful for plants and that nurse species play a key role in the regeneration of restinga environments, where their presence is critical to maintain ecosystem diversity and function. Oxford University Press 2018-03-23 /pmc/articles/PMC5888537/ /pubmed/29644027 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/ply017 Text en © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. 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 reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Dalotto, Cecilia E S
Sühs, Rafael B
Dechoum, Michele S
Pugnaire, Francisco I
Peroni, Nivaldo
Castellani, Tânia T
Facilitation influences patterns of perennial species abundance and richness in a subtropical dune system
title Facilitation influences patterns of perennial species abundance and richness in a subtropical dune system
title_full Facilitation influences patterns of perennial species abundance and richness in a subtropical dune system
title_fullStr Facilitation influences patterns of perennial species abundance and richness in a subtropical dune system
title_full_unstemmed Facilitation influences patterns of perennial species abundance and richness in a subtropical dune system
title_short Facilitation influences patterns of perennial species abundance and richness in a subtropical dune system
title_sort facilitation influences patterns of perennial species abundance and richness in a subtropical dune system
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5888537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29644027
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/ply017
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