A Continuum From Positive to Negative Interactions Drives Plant Species' Performance in a Diverse Community.

ABSTRACT: With many species interacting in nature, determining which interactions describe community dynamics is nontrivial. By applying a computational modeling approach to an extensive field survey, we assessed the importance of interactions from plants (both inter- and intra-specific), pollinators and insect herbivores on plant performance (i.e., viable seed production). We compared the inclusion of interaction effects as aggregate guild-level terms versus terms specific to taxonomic groups. We found that a continuum from positive to negative interactions, containing mostly guild-level effects and a few strong taxonomic-specific effects, was sufficient to describe plant performance. While interactions with herbivores and intraspecific plants varied from weakly negative to weakly positive, heteros

SUBMITTER: Buche L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11750059 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature