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Nytko AG, Hord AM, Senior JK, O’Reilly-Wapstra J, Schweitzer JA, Bailey JK. Evolution of rarity and phylogeny determine above- and belowground biomass in plant-plant interactions. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0294839. [PMID: 38768148 PMCID: PMC11104619 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294839] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2023] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Rare species are often considered inferior competitors due to occupancy of small ranges, specific habitats, and small local populations. However, the phylogenetic relatedness and rarity level (level 1-7 and common) of interacting species in plant-plant interactions are not often considered when predicting the response of rare plants in a biotic context. We used a common garden of 25 species of Tasmanian Eucalyptus, to differentiate non-additive patterns in the biomass of rare versus common species when grown in mixtures varying in phylogenetic relatedness and rarity. We demonstrate that rare species maintain progressively positive non-additive responses in biomass when interacting with phylogenetically intermediate, less rare and common species. This trend is not reflected in common species that out-performed in monocultures compared to mixtures. These results offer predictability as to how rare species' productivity will respond within various plant-plant interactions. However, species-specific interactions, such as those involving E. globulus, yielded a 97% increase in biomass compared to other species-specific interaction outcomes. These results are important because they suggest that plant rarity may also be shaped by biotic interactions, in addition to the known environmental and population factors normally used to describe rarity. Rare species may utilize potentially facilitative interactions with phylogenetically intermediate and common species to escape the effects of limiting similarity. Biotically mediated increases in rare plant biomass may have subsequent effects on the competitive ability and geographic occurrence of rare species, allowing rare species to persist at low abundance across plant communities. Through the consideration of species rarity and evolutionary history, we can more accurately predict plant-plant interaction dynamics to preserve unique ecosystem functions and fundamentally challenge what it means to be "rare".
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Affiliation(s)
- Alivia G. Nytko
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States of America
| | - Ashlynn M. Hord
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States of America
| | - John K. Senior
- Discipline of Biological Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Julianne O’Reilly-Wapstra
- Discipline of Biological Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Jennifer A. Schweitzer
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States of America
| | - Joseph K. Bailey
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States of America
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Omer A, Fristoe T, Yang Q, Razanajatovo M, Weigelt P, Kreft H, Dawson W, Dullinger S, Essl F, Pergl J, Pyšek P, van Kleunen M. The role of phylogenetic relatedness on alien plant success depends on the stage of invasion. NATURE PLANTS 2022; 8:906-914. [PMID: 35953709 DOI: 10.1038/s41477-022-01216-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2021] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Darwin's naturalization hypothesis predicts successful alien invaders to be distantly related to native species, whereas his pre-adaptation hypothesis predicts the opposite. It has been suggested that depending on the invasion stage (that is, introduction, naturalization and invasiveness), both hypotheses, now known as Darwin's naturalization conundrum, could hold true. We tested this by analysing whether the likelihood of introduction for cultivation, as well as the subsequent stages of naturalization and spread (that is, becoming invasive) of species alien to Southern Africa are correlated with their phylogenetic distance to the native flora of this region. Although species are more likely to be introduced for cultivation if they are distantly related to the native flora, the probability of subsequent naturalization was higher for species closely related to the native flora. Furthermore, the probability of becoming invasive was higher for naturalized species distantly related to the native flora. These results were consistent across three different metrics of phylogenetic distance. Our study reveals that the relationship between phylogenetic distance to the native flora and the success of an alien species changes from one invasion stage to the other.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Omer
- Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
- Department of Forest Management, University of Khartoum, North Khartoum, Sudan.
| | - Trevor Fristoe
- Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Qiang Yang
- Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Mialy Razanajatovo
- Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
- Institute of Landscape and Plant Ecology (320a), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Patrick Weigelt
- Biodiversity, Macroecology & Biogeography, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Campus-Institut Data Science, Göttingen, Germany
- Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use (CBL), University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Holger Kreft
- Biodiversity, Macroecology & Biogeography, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use (CBL), University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Wayne Dawson
- Department of Biosciences, Durham University, Durham, UK
| | - Stefan Dullinger
- Division of Biodiversity Dynamics and Conservation, Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Franz Essl
- BioInvasions, Global Change, Macroecology-Group, Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Jan Pergl
- Department of Invasion Ecology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Botany, Průhonice, Czech Republic
| | - Petr Pyšek
- Department of Invasion Ecology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Botany, Průhonice, Czech Republic
- Department of Ecology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Mark van Kleunen
- Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou, China
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