Threesomes destabilise certain relationships: multispecies interactions between wood decay fungi in natural resources.

ABSTRACT: Understanding interspecific interactions is key to explaining and modelling community development and associated ecosystem function. Most interactions research has focused on pairwise combinations, overlooking the complexity of multispecies communities. This study investigated three-way interactions between saprotrophic fungi in wood and across soil, and indicated that pairwise combinations are often inaccurate predictors of the outcomes of multispecies competition in wood block interactions. This inconsistency was especially true of intransitive combinations, resulting in increased species coexistence within the resource. Furthermore, the addition of a third competitor frequently destabilised the otherwise consistent outcomes of pairwise combinations in wood blocks, which occasionally res

SUBMITTER: Hiscox J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5399798 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature