Caroline Daniel, Eric Allan, Hugo Saiz, Oscar Godoy
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Plants interact in complex networks but how network structure depends on resources, natural enemies and species resource-use strategy remains poorly understood. Here, we quantified competition networks among 18 plants varying in fast–slow strategy, by testing how increased nutrient availability and reduced foliar pathogens affected intra- and inter-specific interactions. Our results show that nitrogen and pathogens altered several aspects of network structure, often in unexpected ways due to fast and slow growing species responding differently. Nitrogen addition increased competition asymmetry in slow growing networks, as expected, but decreased it in fast growing networks. Pathogen reduction made networks more even and less skewed because pathogens targeted weaker competitors. Surprisingly, pathogens and nitrogen dampened each other's effect. Our results show that plant growth strategy is key to understand how competition respond to resources and enemies, a prediction from classic theories which has rarely been tested by linking functional traits to competition networks.
期刊介绍:
Ecology Letters serves as a platform for the rapid publication of innovative research in ecology. It considers manuscripts across all taxa, biomes, and geographic regions, prioritizing papers that investigate clearly stated hypotheses. The journal publishes concise papers of high originality and general interest, contributing to new developments in ecology. Purely descriptive papers and those that only confirm or extend previous results are discouraged.