Plant neighbors shape fungal assemblages associated with plant roots: a new understanding of niche‐partitioning in plant communities

Phenology has long been hypothesized as an avenue for niche partitioning or interspecific facilitation, both promoting species coexistence. Tropical plant communities exhibit striking diversity in reproductive phenology, including seasonal patterns of fruit production. Here we study whether this phenological diversity is non-random, what are the temporal scales of phenological patterns, and ecological factors that drive reproductive phenology. We applied multivariate wavelet analyses to test for phenological synchrony versus compensatory dynamics (i.e. anti-synchronous patterns where one species' decline is compensated by the rise of another) among species and across temporal scales. We used data from long-term seed rain monitoring of hyperdiverse plant communities in the western Amazon. We found significant synchronous whole-community phenology at a wide range of time scales, consistent with shared environmental responses or positive interactions among species. We also observed both compensatory and synchronous phenology within groups of species likely to share traits (confamilials) and seed dispersal mechanisms. Wind-dispersed species exhibited significant synchrony at ~6 mo scales, suggesting these species share phenological niches to match seasonality of wind. Our results indicate that community phenology is shaped by shared environmental responses but that the diversity of tropical plant phenology partly results from temporal niche partitioning. The scale-specificity and time-localized nature of community phenology patterns highlights the importance of multiple and shifting drivers of phenology.

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Requirements for plant coexistence through pollination niche partitioning

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2015.0117 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 282 (1810) ◽

pp. 20150117 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Gita Benadi

Keyword(s):

Mathematical Model ◽

Population Dynamics ◽

Plant Communities ◽

Niche Partitioning ◽

Flowering Plants ◽

Empirical Literature ◽

Natural Plant ◽

Diversity Maintenance ◽

Plant Pollinator ◽

Plant Coexistence

Plant–pollinator interactions are often thought to have been a decisive factor in the diversification of flowering plants, but to be of little or no importance for the maintenance of existing plant diversity. In a recent opinion paper, Pauw (2013 Trends Ecol. Evol . 28, 30–37. ( doi:10.1016/j.tree.2012.07.019 )) challenged this view by proposing a mechanism of diversity maintenance based on pollination niche partitioning. In this article, I investigate under which conditions the mechanism suggested by Pauw can promote plant coexistence, using a mathematical model of plant and pollinator population dynamics. Numerical simulations show that this mechanism is most effective when the costs of searching for flowers are low, pollinator populations are strongly limited by resources other than pollen and nectar, and plant–pollinator interactions are sufficiently specialized. I review the empirical literature on these three requirements, discuss additional factors that may be important for diversity maintenance through pollination niche partitioning, and provide recommendations on how to detect this coexistence mechanism in natural plant communities.

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Plant-soil feedbacks help explain biodiversity-productivity relationships

Communications Biology ◽

10.1038/s42003-021-02329-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Leslie E. Forero ◽

Andrew Kulmatiski ◽

Josephine Grenzer ◽

Jeanette M. Norton

Keyword(s):

Plant Growth ◽

Plant Communities ◽

Plant Disease ◽

Niche Partitioning ◽

Simulation Models ◽

Biofuel Production ◽

Plant Soil ◽

Community Growth ◽

Over Time

AbstractSpecies-rich plant communities can produce twice as much aboveground biomass as monocultures, but the mechanisms remain unresolved. We tested whether plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) can help explain these biodiversity-productivity relationships. Using a 16-species, factorial field experiment we found that plants created soils that changed subsequent plant growth by 27% and that this effect increased over time. When incorporated into simulation models, these PSFs improved predictions of plant community growth and explained 14% of overyielding. Here we show quantitative, field-based evidence that diversity maintains productivity by suppressing plant disease. Though this effect alone was modest, it helps constrain the role of factors, such as niche partitioning, that have been difficult to quantify. This improved understanding of biodiversity-productivity relationships has implications for agriculture, biofuel production and conservation.

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Dynamic niche partitioning in root water uptake facilitates efficient water use in more diverse grassland plant communities

Functional Ecology ◽

10.1111/1365-2435.12948 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 214-227 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Marcus Guderle ◽

Dörte Bachmann ◽

Alexandru Milcu ◽

Annette Gockele ◽

Marcel Bechmann ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Use ◽

Plant Communities ◽

Water Uptake ◽

Niche Partitioning ◽

Root Water Uptake ◽

Efficient Water Use

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Microbial Population and Community Dynamics on Plant Roots and Their Feedbacks on Plant Communities

Annual Review of Microbiology ◽

10.1146/annurev-micro-092611-150107 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 66 (1) ◽

pp. 265-283 ◽

Cited By ~ 238

Author(s):

James D. Bever ◽

Thomas G. Platt ◽

Elise R. Morton

Keyword(s):

Plant Communities ◽

Community Dynamics ◽

Microbial Population ◽

Plant Roots ◽

Population And Community Dynamics

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Spectral niches reveal taxonomic identity and complementarity in plant communities

10.1101/2020.04.24.060483 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anna K. Schweiger ◽

Jeannine Cavender-Bares ◽

Philip A. Townsend ◽

Sarah E. Hobbie ◽

Michael D. Madritch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Plant Growth ◽

Plant Communities ◽

Niche Partitioning ◽

Niche Differentiation ◽

Functional Trait ◽

Spectral Space ◽

List Type ◽

Functional Complementarity ◽

Degree Of Differentiation ◽

Better Than

SummaryPlants’ spectra provide integrative measures of their chemical, morphological, anatomical, and architectural traits. We posit that the degree to which plants differentiate in n-dimensional spectral space is a measure of niche differentiation and reveals functional complementarity.In both experimentally and naturally assembled communities, we quantified plant niches using hypervolumes delineated by either plant spectra or 10 functional traits. We compared the niche fraction unique to each species in spectral and trait spaces with increasing dimensionality, and investigated the association between the spectral space occupied, plant growth and community productivity.We show that spectral niches differentiated species better than their functional trait niches. The amount of spectral space occupied by individuals and plant communities increased with plant growth and community productivity, respectively. Further, community productivity was better explained by inter-individual spectral complementarity than by productive individuals occupying large spectral niches.The degree of differentiation in spectral space provides the conceptual basis for identifying plant taxa spectrally. Moreover, our results indicate that the size and position of plant spectral niches reflect ecological strategies that shape community composition and ecosystem function, with the potential to reveal insight in niche partitioning over large areas with spectroscopy.

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