The shift from plant-plant facilitation to competition under severe water deficit is spatially explicit.

ABSTRACT: The stress-gradient hypothesis predicts a higher frequency of facilitative interactions as resource limitation increases. Under severe resource limitation, it has been suggested that facilitation may revert to competition, and identifying the presence as well as determining the magnitude of this shift is important for predicting the effect of climate change on biodiversity and plant community dynamics. In this study, we perform a meta-analysis to compare temporal differences of species diversity and productivity under a nurse plant (Retama sphaerocarpa) with varying annual rainfall quantity to test the effect of water limitation on facilitation. Furthermore, we assess spatial differences in the herbaceous community under nurse plants in situ during a year with below-average r

SUBMITTER: O'Brien MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5383484 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature