Resource competition and community response to fertilization: the outcome depends on spatial strategies |
| |
Authors: | Donald R Schoolmaster Jr Gary G Mittelbach Katherine L Gross |
| |
Institution: | 1. W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI, USA 2. Five Rivers Services, LLC at US Geological Survey, National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, LA, USA 3. Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA 4. Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
|
| |
Abstract: | Decreases in plant species richness and shifts in community structure following fertilization are usually attributed to increasing light limitation. However, there is increasing evidence that light limitation alone does not account for all of the observed effects of fertilization on plant communities. We present a model of competition for a single, spatially heterogeneous resource that shows fertility-mediated changes in community structure without light competition. This model predicts that in a low-productivity spatially heterogeneous habitat, species that interact with the resource environment over small spatial scales may exclude species that experience the environment at larger spatial scales, even when the latter species are better resource competitors in a uniform environment (have a lower R*). Increasing overall habitat fertility under these conditions minimizes the effects of spatial heterogeneity on the species that forage at a larger spatial scale, resulting in changes in species dominance and the potential for species coexistence. This analysis suggests that considering differences in the spatial scales at which species interact with environmental heterogeneity may help explain observed changes in community structure following fertilization. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|