Niche construction by growth forms is as strong a predictor of species diversity as environmental gradients

Summary We present a conceptual framework that describes how species belonging to a growth form collectively can be niche constructors (i.e. modify niches) and affect species diversity in plant communities. We use an empirical assessment of tundra plant communities to illustrate the framework's...

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Published in:Journal of Ecology
Main Authors: Bråthen, Kari Anne, Ravolainen, Virve Tuulia
Other Authors: Lavorel, Sandra, Norwegian Research Council
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12380
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2F1365-2745.12380
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2745.12380
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spelling crwiley:10.1111/1365-2745.12380 2024-04-28T08:40:49+00:00 Niche construction by growth forms is as strong a predictor of species diversity as environmental gradients Bråthen, Kari Anne Ravolainen, Virve Tuulia Lavorel, Sandra Norwegian Research Council 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12380 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2F1365-2745.12380 https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2745.12380 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Journal of Ecology volume 103, issue 3, page 701-713 ISSN 0022-0477 1365-2745 Plant Science Ecology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2015 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12380 2024-04-08T06:56:41Z Summary We present a conceptual framework that describes how species belonging to a growth form collectively can be niche constructors (i.e. modify niches) and affect species diversity in plant communities. We use an empirical assessment of tundra plant communities to illustrate the framework's utility. In doing so, we make a first investigation of collective niche construction in ecological communities. In tundra plant communities, growth forms differently affect ecosystem process rates and cause environmental modifications; thus, growth forms are strong candidates for being niche constructors. To assess the impact of growth form niche construction on plant species diversity, we excluded the species of the growth form applied as niche constructor when estimating the community species diversity. We assessed niche construction in 70 tundra meadow communities and 1450 randomly selected tundra plant communities that are distributed along ecological gradients in temperature, resource availability, competitive interference and herbivory. These gradients allowed us to concomitantly assess to what extent the niche construction is independent of environmental conditions. Growth forms varied from strong positive to neutral predictors of both species richness and Simpson index in the order of forbs, grasses, sedges, deciduous shrubs and evergreen shrubs, suggesting that growth forms have important roles as niche constructors in tundra plant communities. Also, the environmental conditions were strong predictors of species diversity, but they did not interact with or confound the effects of growth forms. Forbs and grasses were the least abundant growth forms, yet they were the strongest positive predictors of species diversity. Therefore, our results suggest a particular niche‐constructing role of these growth forms for enhancing species diversity in tundra plant communities. Synthesis . In this study, we provide conceptual and empirical evidence for collective niche construction as a powerful ecological process that ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Tundra Wiley Online Library Journal of Ecology 103 3 701 713
institution Open Polar
collection Wiley Online Library
op_collection_id crwiley
language English
topic Plant Science
Ecology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
spellingShingle Plant Science
Ecology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Bråthen, Kari Anne
Ravolainen, Virve Tuulia
Niche construction by growth forms is as strong a predictor of species diversity as environmental gradients
topic_facet Plant Science
Ecology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
description Summary We present a conceptual framework that describes how species belonging to a growth form collectively can be niche constructors (i.e. modify niches) and affect species diversity in plant communities. We use an empirical assessment of tundra plant communities to illustrate the framework's utility. In doing so, we make a first investigation of collective niche construction in ecological communities. In tundra plant communities, growth forms differently affect ecosystem process rates and cause environmental modifications; thus, growth forms are strong candidates for being niche constructors. To assess the impact of growth form niche construction on plant species diversity, we excluded the species of the growth form applied as niche constructor when estimating the community species diversity. We assessed niche construction in 70 tundra meadow communities and 1450 randomly selected tundra plant communities that are distributed along ecological gradients in temperature, resource availability, competitive interference and herbivory. These gradients allowed us to concomitantly assess to what extent the niche construction is independent of environmental conditions. Growth forms varied from strong positive to neutral predictors of both species richness and Simpson index in the order of forbs, grasses, sedges, deciduous shrubs and evergreen shrubs, suggesting that growth forms have important roles as niche constructors in tundra plant communities. Also, the environmental conditions were strong predictors of species diversity, but they did not interact with or confound the effects of growth forms. Forbs and grasses were the least abundant growth forms, yet they were the strongest positive predictors of species diversity. Therefore, our results suggest a particular niche‐constructing role of these growth forms for enhancing species diversity in tundra plant communities. Synthesis . In this study, we provide conceptual and empirical evidence for collective niche construction as a powerful ecological process that ...
author2 Lavorel, Sandra
Norwegian Research Council
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Bråthen, Kari Anne
Ravolainen, Virve Tuulia
author_facet Bråthen, Kari Anne
Ravolainen, Virve Tuulia
author_sort Bråthen, Kari Anne
title Niche construction by growth forms is as strong a predictor of species diversity as environmental gradients
title_short Niche construction by growth forms is as strong a predictor of species diversity as environmental gradients
title_full Niche construction by growth forms is as strong a predictor of species diversity as environmental gradients
title_fullStr Niche construction by growth forms is as strong a predictor of species diversity as environmental gradients
title_full_unstemmed Niche construction by growth forms is as strong a predictor of species diversity as environmental gradients
title_sort niche construction by growth forms is as strong a predictor of species diversity as environmental gradients
publisher Wiley
publishDate 2015
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12380
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2F1365-2745.12380
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2745.12380
genre Tundra
genre_facet Tundra
op_source Journal of Ecology
volume 103, issue 3, page 701-713
ISSN 0022-0477 1365-2745
op_rights http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12380
container_title Journal of Ecology
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