Plant Trait Matching Occurs in Facilitative Interactions Across Global Drylands

Smit, Imke C. ; le Roux, Peter C. ; Soliveres, Santiago ; Gross, Nicolas ; Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Yoann ; Saiz, Hugo (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Abedi, Mehdi ; Ahumada, Rodrigo ; Arroyo, Antonio I. ; Asensio, Sergio ; Benoit, Richard ; Blaum, Niels ; Bu, Chongfeng ; Eldridge, David ; Fajardo, Alex ; Farzam, Mohammad ; Fateh, Amghar ; García-Gómez, Miguel ; Gaitán, Juan J. ; Gonzalez, Sofia ; Gozalo, Beatriz ; Greenville, Aaron C. ; Guirado, Emilio ; Hering, Robert ; Leder, Cintia V. ; Li, Xinhao ; Liu, Jushan ; Louw, Michelle A. ; Manzaneda, Antonio J. ; Marais, Eugene ; Martínez-Valderrama, Jaime ; Mendoza, Betty J. ; Mora, Juan P. ; Moreno, Gerardo ; Ochoa, Victoria ; Oñatibia, Gastón R. ; Peter, Guadalupe ; Pueyo, Yolanda ; Quiroga, Emiliano ; Rahmanian, Soroor ; Rey, Pedro J. ; Rolo, Victor ; Plaza, César ; Sarig, Shlomo ; Selyari, Javad ; Travers, Samantha ; Valencia, Enrique ; Wang, Deli ; Wang, Lixin ; Wardle, Glenda ; Yahdjian, Laura ; Zaady, Eli ; Zhang, Yuanming ; Zhou, Xiaobing ; Maestre, Fernando T.

Resumen: Aim
Plant functional traits can influence interaction outcomes between nurse and target plants through a “functional trait match”, which occurs when the traits of nurse plants ameliorate their environment, and target plants possess traits that allow them to benefit from this ameliorated environment. We investigated how the traits of putative nurse species affect interaction outcomes across global drylands and determined the functional match that promotes facilitation. We also investigated how grazing pressure and global climatic and edaphic gradients affected this trait match.

Location
Global drylands.

Time Period
2016–2019.

Major Taxa Studied
Vascular plants.

Methods
We used a collaborative survey conducted across 29 sites from five continents, where we gathered in situ co-occurrences of dominant species (‘nurses’) and other vascular plant species, as well as their functional traits [plant height and leaf dry matter content (LDMC)]. Climate, edaphic variables and grazing pressure were measured in situ or extracted from databases. We used a model building approach to determine the effect of dominant plant traits on interaction outcomes, and how the functional trait match between nurse and target species is affected by environmental variables.

Results
Tall dominant plants with conservative leaves generally had a greater positive effect on species richness and cover beneath their canopies, but these effects were strongly modulated by grazing pressure and soil pH. Target plants that were significantly associated with dominant plants tended to be shorter, and have more acquisitive leaves than dominant plants, regardless of environmental conditions. However, the difference in height and LDMC between dominant plants and negatively associated target plants was strongly affected by environmental conditions.

Main Conclusions
Functional traits play a significant role in determining interaction outcomes between dryland plants. Facilitation in drylands is driven by a conservative-acquisitive trait match, a pattern observed regardless of grazing pressure, climate and soil conditions.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1111/geb.70158

Año: 2025

Publicado en: GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY 34, 11 (2025), e70158 [18 pp.]
ISSN: 1466-822X

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Ecología (Dpto. CC.Agrar.y Medio Natural)