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Assembly rules in a resource gradient: Competition and abiotic filtering determine the structuring of plant communities in stressful environments

The relative importance of different community assembly mechanisms varies depending on the environment. According to the stress-dominance hypothesis (SDH), assembly mechanisms range from strong abiotic filtering to competition as the environment becomes more favourable. Most evidence for the SDH com...

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Autores principales: Menezes, Bruno Sousa, Martins, Fernando Roberto, Dantas Carvalho, Ellen Cristina, Souza, Bruno Cruz, Silveira, Andrea Pereira, Loiola, Maria Iracema Bezerra, Araújo, Francisca Soares
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7069682/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32168330
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230097
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author Menezes, Bruno Sousa
Martins, Fernando Roberto
Dantas Carvalho, Ellen Cristina
Souza, Bruno Cruz
Silveira, Andrea Pereira
Loiola, Maria Iracema Bezerra
Araújo, Francisca Soares
author_facet Menezes, Bruno Sousa
Martins, Fernando Roberto
Dantas Carvalho, Ellen Cristina
Souza, Bruno Cruz
Silveira, Andrea Pereira
Loiola, Maria Iracema Bezerra
Araújo, Francisca Soares
author_sort Menezes, Bruno Sousa
collection PubMed
description The relative importance of different community assembly mechanisms varies depending on the environment. According to the stress-dominance hypothesis (SDH), assembly mechanisms range from strong abiotic filtering to competition as the environment becomes more favourable. Most evidence for the SDH comes from studies in gradients of conditions (i.e. abiotic environmental factors that influence the functioning of organisms but are not consumed by them). However, we hypothesized that in resource gradients, competition increases as abiotic filtering becomes stronger. To test our hypothesis, we set up eight plots at different sites along an abiotic severity gradient in the Brazilian semi-arid region (BSAR). In each plot, we identified and measured each woody plant species found, and we recorded 11 functional traits of the main species, dividing the traits into alpha (competition effects) and beta (abiotic filtering effects). We investigated the presence of phylogenetic signal in the traits, the community phylogenetic and phenotypic patterns, and associated the variation in these patterns with the availability of water and soil nutrients. We found phylogenetic signal for most (91%) of the traits analysed. The phylogenetic patterns varied from clustered in stressful sites to random or overdispersed in favourable sites, and we concluded that these phylogenetic patterns were the result of historical processes influencing community assembly in different environments in the BSAR. In general, the phenotypic patterns varied from clustered at the most stressful end to random at less stressful sites. Our results show that in resource gradients, any restriction of the resource (hydric or edaphic) intensifies abiotic filtering and, at the same time, increases the competitive hierarchy among species. On the other hand, stochastic processes seem to have a stronger influence under more favourable abiotic conditions, where abiotic filtering and competition are weaker. Thus, we conclude that the SDH is not supported in resource gradients.
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spelling pubmed-70696822020-03-23 Assembly rules in a resource gradient: Competition and abiotic filtering determine the structuring of plant communities in stressful environments Menezes, Bruno Sousa Martins, Fernando Roberto Dantas Carvalho, Ellen Cristina Souza, Bruno Cruz Silveira, Andrea Pereira Loiola, Maria Iracema Bezerra Araújo, Francisca Soares PLoS One Research Article The relative importance of different community assembly mechanisms varies depending on the environment. According to the stress-dominance hypothesis (SDH), assembly mechanisms range from strong abiotic filtering to competition as the environment becomes more favourable. Most evidence for the SDH comes from studies in gradients of conditions (i.e. abiotic environmental factors that influence the functioning of organisms but are not consumed by them). However, we hypothesized that in resource gradients, competition increases as abiotic filtering becomes stronger. To test our hypothesis, we set up eight plots at different sites along an abiotic severity gradient in the Brazilian semi-arid region (BSAR). In each plot, we identified and measured each woody plant species found, and we recorded 11 functional traits of the main species, dividing the traits into alpha (competition effects) and beta (abiotic filtering effects). We investigated the presence of phylogenetic signal in the traits, the community phylogenetic and phenotypic patterns, and associated the variation in these patterns with the availability of water and soil nutrients. We found phylogenetic signal for most (91%) of the traits analysed. The phylogenetic patterns varied from clustered in stressful sites to random or overdispersed in favourable sites, and we concluded that these phylogenetic patterns were the result of historical processes influencing community assembly in different environments in the BSAR. In general, the phenotypic patterns varied from clustered at the most stressful end to random at less stressful sites. Our results show that in resource gradients, any restriction of the resource (hydric or edaphic) intensifies abiotic filtering and, at the same time, increases the competitive hierarchy among species. On the other hand, stochastic processes seem to have a stronger influence under more favourable abiotic conditions, where abiotic filtering and competition are weaker. Thus, we conclude that the SDH is not supported in resource gradients. Public Library of Science 2020-03-13 /pmc/articles/PMC7069682/ /pubmed/32168330 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230097 Text en © 2020 Menezes 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, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Menezes, Bruno Sousa
Martins, Fernando Roberto
Dantas Carvalho, Ellen Cristina
Souza, Bruno Cruz
Silveira, Andrea Pereira
Loiola, Maria Iracema Bezerra
Araújo, Francisca Soares
Assembly rules in a resource gradient: Competition and abiotic filtering determine the structuring of plant communities in stressful environments
title Assembly rules in a resource gradient: Competition and abiotic filtering determine the structuring of plant communities in stressful environments
title_full Assembly rules in a resource gradient: Competition and abiotic filtering determine the structuring of plant communities in stressful environments
title_fullStr Assembly rules in a resource gradient: Competition and abiotic filtering determine the structuring of plant communities in stressful environments
title_full_unstemmed Assembly rules in a resource gradient: Competition and abiotic filtering determine the structuring of plant communities in stressful environments
title_short Assembly rules in a resource gradient: Competition and abiotic filtering determine the structuring of plant communities in stressful environments
title_sort assembly rules in a resource gradient: competition and abiotic filtering determine the structuring of plant communities in stressful environments
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7069682/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32168330
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230097
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