Biome boundary maintained by intense belowground resource competition in world's thinnest-rooted plant community.

ABSTRACT: Recent findings point to plant root traits as potentially important for shaping the boundaries of biomes and for maintaining the plant communities within. We examined two hypotheses: 1) Thin-rooted plant strategies might be favored in biomes with low soil resources; and 2) these strategies may act, along with fire, to maintain the sharp boundary between the Fynbos and Afrotemperate Forest biomes in South Africa. These biomes differ in biodiversity, plant traits, and physiognomy, yet exist as alternative stable states on the same geological substrate and in the same climate conditions. We conducted a 4-y field experiment to examine the ability of Forest species to invade the Fynbos as a function of growth-limiting nutrients and belowground plant-plant competition. Our results support both h

SUBMITTER: Lu M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8892519 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature