Plant community responses to simultaneous changes in temperature, nitrogen availability, and invasion.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Increasing rates of change in climate have been observed across the planet and have contributed to the ongoing range shifts observed for many species. Although ecologists are now using a variety of approaches to study how much and through what mechanisms increasing temperature and nutrient pollution may influence the invasions inherent in range shifts, accurate predictions are still lacking.

Methods and results

In this study, we conducted a factorial experiment, simultaneously manipulating warming, nitrogen addition and introduction of Pityopsis aspera, to determine how range-shifting species affect a plant community. We quantified the resident community using ordination scores, then used structural equation modeling to examine hypotheses related to how plants res

SUBMITTER: Gornish ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4400009 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature