|
Descripción
|
|
|---|---|
| To unveil mechanisms driving species composition and maintenance of species diversity in plant communities has remained central to ecology during the last decades. Among them, biotic interactions and more specifically, the existence of positive ones, have strong, often species-specific, effects on plant diversity. These positive interactions would expand species distribution across environmental gradients and increase the extent of suitable habitats into physically harsh. Our working hypothesis is based on two complementary ideas: i) nurses increase the diversity because many species recruit successfully only beneath their canopies but the importance of this facilitation decreases in areas with lower abiotic stress, ii) this primary effect is modulated by the herbivory pressure which can force some plants to survive only under nurse canopies. Our results support the proposal that magnitude of the effects of ecosystem engineers in species diversity and productivity vary along environmental gradients, in zones with higher environmental stress the engineering plants effect is higher. Moreover, our results show that inclusion of grazing pressure as a driver of plant?plant interactions alters the importance of positive ? negative interactions, in the presence of herbivores, the importance of the engineering plants is maintained in zones with benign environmental. Biotic interactions change with the elevation from positive relationships in the lower zone to neutral or negative in the higher zones, responding to the stress hypothesis of the gradient, these effects are evaluated both the cover and species richness. However, the inclusion of grazing has a substantial impact on the interactions changing the patterns interaction. | |
|
Internacional
|
Si |
|
Nombre congreso
|
12th European Ecological Federation Congress |
|
Tipo de participación
|
960 |
|
Lugar del congreso
|
Avila |
|
Revisores
|
Si |
|
ISBN o ISSN
|
NA |
|
DOI
|
|
|
Fecha inicio congreso
|
25/09/2011 |
|
Fecha fin congreso
|
29/09/2011 |
|
Desde la página
|
95 |
|
Hasta la página
|
95 |
|
Título de las actas
|
12th European Ecological Federation Congress. Abstract Book |