Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
© The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Ecology and Evolution 6 (2016): 5416–5430, doi:10.1002/ece3.2299.
Description:
Theory predicts that neighboring communities can shape one another's composition and function, for example, through the exchange of member species. However, empirical tests of the directionality and strength of these effects are rare. We determined the effects of neighboring communities on one another through experimental manipulation of a plant-fungal model system. We first established distinct ectomycorrhizal fungal communities on Douglas-fir seedlings that were initially grown in three soil environments. We then transplanted seedlings and mycorrhizal communities in a fully factorial experiment designed to quantify the direction and strength of neighbor effects by focusing on changes in fungal community species composition and implications for seedling growth (a proxy for community function). We found that neighbor effects on the composition and function of adjacent communities follow a dominance hierarchy. Specifically, mycorrhizal communities established from soils collected in Douglas-fir plantations were both the least sensitive to neighbor effects, and exerted the strongest influence on their neighbors by driving convergence in neighbor community composition and increasing neighbor seedling vigor. These results demonstrate that asymmetric neighbor effects mediated by ecological history can determine both community composition and function.
Description:
National Science Foundation. Grant Numbers: DBI-1401332, DEB-1209441
New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Science
Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation
Crown Research Institutes from the New Zealand Ministry of Business;
Innovation and Employment's Science and Innovation Group;
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship;
NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant;
ARCS Fellowship;
NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology
Keywords:
Community assembly
;
Community coalescence
;
Community dynamics
;
Compositional variation
;
Ecosystem function
;
Ectomycorrhizal fungi
;
Plant–fungal interactions
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
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