The Alpine Cushion Plant Silene acaulis as Foundation Species: A Bug’s-Eye View to Facilitation and Microclimate
Alpine ecosystems are important globally with high levels of endemic and rare species. Given that they will be highly impacted by climate change, understanding biotic factors that maintain diversity is critical. Silene acaulis is a common alpine nurse plant shown to positively influence the diversit...
Published in: | PLoS ONE |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science
2012
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3360034 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22655035 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037223 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3360034 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3360034 2023-05-15T18:19:44+02:00 The Alpine Cushion Plant Silene acaulis as Foundation Species: A Bug’s-Eye View to Facilitation and Microclimate Molenda, Olivia Reid, Anya Lortie, Christopher J. 2012-05-24 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3360034 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22655035 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037223 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3360034 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22655035 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037223 Molenda et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2012 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037223 2013-09-04T07:45:05Z Alpine ecosystems are important globally with high levels of endemic and rare species. Given that they will be highly impacted by climate change, understanding biotic factors that maintain diversity is critical. Silene acaulis is a common alpine nurse plant shown to positively influence the diversity and abundance of organisms–predominantly other plant species. The hypothesis that cushion or nurse plants in general are important to multiple trophic levels has been proposed but rarely tested. Alpine arthropod diversity is also largely understudied worldwide, and the plant-arthropod interactions reported are mostly negative, that is,. herbivory. Plant and arthropod diversity and abundance were sampled on S. acaulis and at paired adjacent microsites with other non-cushion forming vegetation present on Whistler Mountain, B.C., Canada to examine the relative trophic effects of cushion plants. Plant species richness and abundance but not Simpson’s diversity index was higher on cushion microsites relative to other vegetation. Arthropod richness, abundance, and diversity were all higher on cushion microsites relative to other vegetated sites. On a microclimatic scale, S. acaulis ameliorated stressful conditions for plants and invertebrates living inside it, but the highest levels of arthropod diversity were observed on cushions with tall plant growth. Hence, alpine cushion plants can be foundation species not only for other plant species but other trophic levels, and these impacts are expressed through both direct and indirect effects associated with altered environmental conditions and localized productivity. Whilst this case study tests a limited subset of the membership of alpine animal communities, it clearly demonstrates that cushion-forming plant species are an important consideration in understanding resilience to global changes for many organisms in addition to other plants. Text Silene acaulis PubMed Central (PMC) Canada PLoS ONE 7 5 e37223 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Research Article |
spellingShingle |
Research Article Molenda, Olivia Reid, Anya Lortie, Christopher J. The Alpine Cushion Plant Silene acaulis as Foundation Species: A Bug’s-Eye View to Facilitation and Microclimate |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
Alpine ecosystems are important globally with high levels of endemic and rare species. Given that they will be highly impacted by climate change, understanding biotic factors that maintain diversity is critical. Silene acaulis is a common alpine nurse plant shown to positively influence the diversity and abundance of organisms–predominantly other plant species. The hypothesis that cushion or nurse plants in general are important to multiple trophic levels has been proposed but rarely tested. Alpine arthropod diversity is also largely understudied worldwide, and the plant-arthropod interactions reported are mostly negative, that is,. herbivory. Plant and arthropod diversity and abundance were sampled on S. acaulis and at paired adjacent microsites with other non-cushion forming vegetation present on Whistler Mountain, B.C., Canada to examine the relative trophic effects of cushion plants. Plant species richness and abundance but not Simpson’s diversity index was higher on cushion microsites relative to other vegetation. Arthropod richness, abundance, and diversity were all higher on cushion microsites relative to other vegetated sites. On a microclimatic scale, S. acaulis ameliorated stressful conditions for plants and invertebrates living inside it, but the highest levels of arthropod diversity were observed on cushions with tall plant growth. Hence, alpine cushion plants can be foundation species not only for other plant species but other trophic levels, and these impacts are expressed through both direct and indirect effects associated with altered environmental conditions and localized productivity. Whilst this case study tests a limited subset of the membership of alpine animal communities, it clearly demonstrates that cushion-forming plant species are an important consideration in understanding resilience to global changes for many organisms in addition to other plants. |
format |
Text |
author |
Molenda, Olivia Reid, Anya Lortie, Christopher J. |
author_facet |
Molenda, Olivia Reid, Anya Lortie, Christopher J. |
author_sort |
Molenda, Olivia |
title |
The Alpine Cushion Plant Silene acaulis as Foundation Species: A Bug’s-Eye View to Facilitation and Microclimate |
title_short |
The Alpine Cushion Plant Silene acaulis as Foundation Species: A Bug’s-Eye View to Facilitation and Microclimate |
title_full |
The Alpine Cushion Plant Silene acaulis as Foundation Species: A Bug’s-Eye View to Facilitation and Microclimate |
title_fullStr |
The Alpine Cushion Plant Silene acaulis as Foundation Species: A Bug’s-Eye View to Facilitation and Microclimate |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Alpine Cushion Plant Silene acaulis as Foundation Species: A Bug’s-Eye View to Facilitation and Microclimate |
title_sort |
alpine cushion plant silene acaulis as foundation species: a bug’s-eye view to facilitation and microclimate |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3360034 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22655035 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037223 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Silene acaulis |
genre_facet |
Silene acaulis |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3360034 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22655035 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037223 |
op_rights |
Molenda et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037223 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
e37223 |
_version_ |
1766196957364092928 |