Evolutionary relationships can be more important than abiotic conditions in predicting the outcome of plant-plant interactions.

ABSTRACT: Positive and negative plant-plant interactions are major processes shaping plant communities. They are affected by environmental conditions and evolutionary relationships among the interacting plants. However, the generality of these factors as drivers of pairwise plant interactions and their combined effects remain virtually unknown. We conducted an observational study to assess how environmental conditions (altitude, temperature, irradiance and rainfall), the dispersal mechanism of beneficiary species and evolutionary relationships affected the co-occurrence of pairwise interactions in 11 Stipa tenacissima steppes located along an environmental gradient in Spain. We studied 197 pairwise plant-plant interactions involving the two major nurse plants (the resprouting shrub Quercus

SUBMITTER: Soliveres S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4407975 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature