SGH: stress or strain gradient hypothesis? Insights from an elevation gradient on the roof of the world.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

The stress gradient hypothesis (SGH), the view that competition prevails in undisturbed and productive environments, and shifts to facilitation in disturbed or stressful environments, has become a central paradigm in ecology. However, an alternative view proposes that the relationship between biotic interactions and environmental severity should be unimodal instead of monotonic. Possible causes of discrepancies between these two views were examined in the high elevation desert of the arid Trans-Himalayas.

Methods

A putative nurse species and its associated plant community was surveyed over its entire elevation range, spanning from alpine to desert vegetation belts. The results were analysed at the community level (vegetation cover and species richness), c

SUBMITTER: Liancourt P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5737727 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature