Direct and indirect facilitation affect community productivity through changes in functional diversity in an alpine system.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Facilitation is an important ecological process for plant community structure and functional composition. Although direct facilitation has accrued most of the evidence so far, indirect facilitation is ubiquitous in nature and it has an enormous potential to explain community structuring. In this study, we assess the effect of direct and indirect facilitation on community productivity via taxonomic and functional diversity.

Methods

In an alpine community on the Tibetan Plateau, we manipulated the presence of the shrub Dasiphora fruticosa and graminoids in a fenced meadow and a grazed meadow to quantify the effects of direct and indirect facilitation. We measured four plant traits: height, lateral spread, specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry matter content

SUBMITTER: Wang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7789107 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature