By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Ecology, Environment & Conservation -- Investigators discuss new findings in Ecology Research - Plant Ecology. According to news originating from Merida, Venezuela, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, “Facilitation by nurse plants has received considerable attention, but the feedback effects of beneficiaries on the benefactor fitness remain comparatively unexplored. In particular, to our knowledge there have been no studies of feedback effects of exotic species on nurse plants.”
Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Los Andes, “Furthermore, there have been few studies of how exotic plants interact with native beneficiaries, potentially generating indirect effects on the nurse. Here, through spatial association analyses, we estimate the reciprocal interactions between the cushion nurse-plant Arenaria musciformis, native beneficiaries, and the dominant exotic Rumex acetosella (a fast growing heliophile species) in a tropical alpine ecosystem of the Venezuelan Andes, locally known as paramos. We recorded the density of natives and the exotic within Arenaria cushions and in paired open areas at three sites and calculated Relative Interaction Indices (RII) to explore the effects of the cushion. Then, we analyzed the feedback effects of Rumex and the natives on the density of flowers produced by Arenaria. Finally, we analyzed how Rumex abundance is related to the abundance of native species inside and outside cushions. RIIs indicated a facilitative effect of cushions on the abundance of native plants, but no effect on Rumex. We found a negative relationship between the density of natives and cushion flower density, but no such relationship for Rumex. However, at high densities, Rumex was negatively correlated with the abundance of the natives both inside and outside of cushions. Our results suggest the possibility of complex reciprocal interactions between nurses, natives and exotics, and that native and exotic plants can differ in their feedback effects on nurse cushions. Native plants appeared to be facilitated by cushions and then develop a parasitic relationship with their nurses. In contrast, the exotic Rumex had a neutral interaction with the nurse, but competitive effects on the native beneficiary community, which could indirectly modulate the feedback effects of natives on the nurse.”
According to the news editors, the research concluded: “These results highlight the importance of analyzing direct and indirect reciprocal interactions and the impacts of exotic invaders for understanding alpine community assembly.”
For more information on this research see: Reciprocal interactions between a facilitator, natives, and exotics in tropical alpine plant communities. Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics , 2018;30():82-88. Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics can be contacted at: Elsevier Gmbh, Urban & Fischer Verlag, Office Jena, P O Box 100537, 07705 Jena, Germany.
The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from L.D. Llambi, Los Andes University, Inst Ciencias Ambientales & Ecol, Merida 5101, Venezuela. Additional authors for this research include N. Hupp, A. Saez and R. Callaway.
The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2017.05.002. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.
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CITATION: (2018-04-06), Investigators at University of Los Andes Report Findings in Plant Ecology (Reciprocal interactions between a facilitator, natives, and exotics in tropical alpine plant communities), Ecology, Environment & Conservation, 355, ISSN: 1945-6506, BUTTER® ID: 015441105
From the newsletter Ecology, Environment & Conservation.
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