Plant Trait Matching Occurs in Facilitative Interactions Across Global Drylands

Aim Plant functional traits can influence interaction outcomes between nurse and target plants through a “functional trait match”, which occurs when the traits of nurse plants ameliorate their environment, and target plants possess traits that allow them to benefit from this ameliorated environment....

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Smit, Imke C., le Roux, Peter C., Soliveres, Santiago, Gross, Nicolas, Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Yoann, Saiz, Hugo, Abedi, Mehdi, Ahumada, Rodrigo, Arroyo, Antonio I., Asensio, Sergio, Benoit, Richard, Blaum, Niels, Bu, Chongfeng, Eldridge, David, Fajardo, Alex, Farzam, Mohammad, Fateh, Amghar, García-Gómez, Miguel, Gaitán, Juan J., Gonzalez, Sofia, Gozalo, Beatriz, Greenville, Aaron C., Guirado, Emilio, Hering, Robert, Leder, Cintia V., Li, Xinhao, Liu, Jushan, Louw, Michelle A., Manzaneda, Antonio J., Marais, Eugene, Martínez-Valderrama, Jaime, Mendoza, Betty J., Mora, Juan P., Moreno, Gerardo, Ochoa, Victoria, Oñatibia, Gastón R., Peter, Guadalupe, Pueyo, Yolanda, Quiroga, Emiliano, Rahmanian, Soroor, Rey, Pedro J., Rolo, Victor, Plaza, César, Sarig, Shlomo, Selyari, Javad, Travers, Samantha, Valencia, Enrique, Wang, Deli, Wang, Lixin, Wardle, Glenda, Yahdjian, Laura, Zaady, Eli, Zhang, Yuanming, Zhou, Xiaobing, Maestre, Fernando T.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Zaragoza
Repositorio:Zaguán. Repositorio Digital de la Universidad de Zaragoza
OAI Identifier:oai:zaguan.unizar.es:165780
Acceso en línea:http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/165780
Access Level:acceso abierto
Descripción
Sumario:Aim Plant functional traits can influence interaction outcomes between nurse and target plants through a “functional trait match”, which occurs when the traits of nurse plants ameliorate their environment, and target plants possess traits that allow them to benefit from this ameliorated environment. We investigated how the traits of putative nurse species affect interaction outcomes across global drylands and determined the functional match that promotes facilitation. We also investigated how grazing pressure and global climatic and edaphic gradients affected this trait match. Location Global drylands. Time Period 2016–2019. Major Taxa Studied Vascular plants. Methods We used a collaborative survey conducted across 29 sites from five continents, where we gathered in situ co-occurrences of dominant species (‘nurses’) and other vascular plant species, as well as their functional traits [plant height and leaf dry matter content (LDMC)]. Climate, edaphic variables and grazing pressure were measured in situ or extracted from databases. We used a model building approach to determine the effect of dominant plant traits on interaction outcomes, and how the functional trait match between nurse and target species is affected by environmental variables. Results Tall dominant plants with conservative leaves generally had a greater positive effect on species richness and cover beneath their canopies, but these effects were strongly modulated by grazing pressure and soil pH. Target plants that were significantly associated with dominant plants tended to be shorter, and have more acquisitive leaves than dominant plants, regardless of environmental conditions. However, the difference in height and LDMC between dominant plants and negatively associated target plants was strongly affected by environmental conditions. Main Conclusions Functional traits play a significant role in determining interaction outcomes between dryland plants. Facilitation in drylands is driven by a conservative-acquisitive trait match, a pattern observed regardless of grazing pressure, climate and soil conditions.

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