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Disturbance and the (surprising?) role of ecosystem engineering in explaining spatial patterns of non‐native plant establishment

Different conceptions of disturbance differ in the degree to which they appeal to mechanisms that are general and equivalent, or species‐, functional group‐, or interaction‐specific. Some concepts of disturbance, for example, predict that soil disturbances and herbivory have identical impacts on spe...

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Autores principales: Root‐Bernstein, Meredith, Muñoz, César, Armesto, Juan J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8427612/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34522336
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7915
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author Root‐Bernstein, Meredith
Muñoz, César
Armesto, Juan J.
author_facet Root‐Bernstein, Meredith
Muñoz, César
Armesto, Juan J.
author_sort Root‐Bernstein, Meredith
collection PubMed
description Different conceptions of disturbance differ in the degree to which they appeal to mechanisms that are general and equivalent, or species‐, functional group‐, or interaction‐specific. Some concepts of disturbance, for example, predict that soil disturbances and herbivory have identical impacts on species richness via identical mechanisms (reduction in biomass and in competition). An alternative hypothesis is that the specific traits of disturbance agents (small mammals) and plants differentially affect the richness or abundance of different plant groups. We tested these hypotheses on a degu (Octodon degus) colony in central Chile. We ask whether native and non‐native forbs respond differently to degu bioturbation on runways versus herbivory on grazing lawns. We ask whether this can explain the increase in non‐native plants on degu colonies. We found that biopedturbation did not explain the locations of non‐native plants. We did not find direct evidence of grazing increasing non‐native herbs either, but a grazing effect appears to be mediated by grass, which is the dominant cover. Further, we provide supplementary evidence to support our interpretation that a key mechanism of non‐native spread is the formation of dry soil conditions on grazing lawns. Thus, ecosystem engineering (alteration of soil qualities) may be an outcome of disturbances, in which each interacts with specific plant traits, to create the observed pattern of non‐native spread in the colony. Based on these results, we propose to extend Jentsch and White (Ecology, 100, 2019, e02734) concept of combined pulse/ disturbance events to the long‐term process duality of ecosystem engineering/ disturbance.
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spelling pubmed-84276122021-09-13 Disturbance and the (surprising?) role of ecosystem engineering in explaining spatial patterns of non‐native plant establishment Root‐Bernstein, Meredith Muñoz, César Armesto, Juan J. Ecol Evol Original Research Different conceptions of disturbance differ in the degree to which they appeal to mechanisms that are general and equivalent, or species‐, functional group‐, or interaction‐specific. Some concepts of disturbance, for example, predict that soil disturbances and herbivory have identical impacts on species richness via identical mechanisms (reduction in biomass and in competition). An alternative hypothesis is that the specific traits of disturbance agents (small mammals) and plants differentially affect the richness or abundance of different plant groups. We tested these hypotheses on a degu (Octodon degus) colony in central Chile. We ask whether native and non‐native forbs respond differently to degu bioturbation on runways versus herbivory on grazing lawns. We ask whether this can explain the increase in non‐native plants on degu colonies. We found that biopedturbation did not explain the locations of non‐native plants. We did not find direct evidence of grazing increasing non‐native herbs either, but a grazing effect appears to be mediated by grass, which is the dominant cover. Further, we provide supplementary evidence to support our interpretation that a key mechanism of non‐native spread is the formation of dry soil conditions on grazing lawns. Thus, ecosystem engineering (alteration of soil qualities) may be an outcome of disturbances, in which each interacts with specific plant traits, to create the observed pattern of non‐native spread in the colony. Based on these results, we propose to extend Jentsch and White (Ecology, 100, 2019, e02734) concept of combined pulse/ disturbance events to the long‐term process duality of ecosystem engineering/ disturbance. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-08-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8427612/ /pubmed/34522336 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7915 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Root‐Bernstein, Meredith
Muñoz, César
Armesto, Juan J.
Disturbance and the (surprising?) role of ecosystem engineering in explaining spatial patterns of non‐native plant establishment
title Disturbance and the (surprising?) role of ecosystem engineering in explaining spatial patterns of non‐native plant establishment
title_full Disturbance and the (surprising?) role of ecosystem engineering in explaining spatial patterns of non‐native plant establishment
title_fullStr Disturbance and the (surprising?) role of ecosystem engineering in explaining spatial patterns of non‐native plant establishment
title_full_unstemmed Disturbance and the (surprising?) role of ecosystem engineering in explaining spatial patterns of non‐native plant establishment
title_short Disturbance and the (surprising?) role of ecosystem engineering in explaining spatial patterns of non‐native plant establishment
title_sort disturbance and the (surprising?) role of ecosystem engineering in explaining spatial patterns of non‐native plant establishment
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8427612/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34522336
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7915
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