Functional Plant Types Drive Plant Interactions in a Mediterranean Mountain Range.

ABSTRACT: Shrubs have positive (facilitation) and negative (competition) effects on understory plants, the net interaction effect being modulated by abiotic conditions. Overall shrubs influence to great extent the structure of plant communities where they have significant presence. Interactions in a plant community are quite diverse but little is known about their variability and effects at community level. Here we checked the effects of co-occurring shrub species from different functional types on a focal understory species, determining mechanisms driving interaction outcome, and tested whether effects measured on the focal species were a proxy for effects measured at the community level. Growth, physiological, and reproductive traits of Euphorbia nicaeensis, our focal species, were recorded on ind

SUBMITTER: Macek P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4876123 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature