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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...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2021
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8427612 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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