Functional traits determine plant co-occurrence more than environment or evolutionary relatedness in global drylands.

ABSTRACT: Plant-plant interactions are driven by environmental conditions, evolutionary relationships (ER) and the functional traits of the plants involved. However, studies addressing the relative importance of these drivers are rare, but crucial to improve our predictions of the effects of plant-plant interactions on plant communities and of how they respond to differing environmental conditions. To analyze the relative importance of -and interrelationships among- these factors as drivers of plant-plant interactions, we analyzed perennial plant co-occurrence at 106 dryland plant communities established across rainfall gradients in nine countries. We used structural equation modeling to disentangle the relationships between environmental conditions (aridity and soil fertility), functional traits ex

SUBMITTER: Soliveres S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4407970 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature