Palabras clave
estrés abiótico
comunidad vegetal
Cómo citar
Resumen
Tradicionalmente se consideró que las interacciones negativas entre especies de plantas eran la fuerza modeladora de la estructura y el funcionamiento de los ecosistemas, mientras las interacciones positivas eran de poca importancia en ese sentido. Dicha visión ha cambiado en las últimas décadas y actualmente se considera que las interacciones de tipo positivo, también juegan un papel importante para la estructuración y el funcionamiento de los ecosistemas. La facilitación es un tipo de interacción positiva no trófica, que se produce entre plantas fisiológicamente independientes y que está mediada a través de cambios en el entorno abiótico o a través de otros organismos. La mayor parte de la investigación realizada en el campo de la facilitación en los últimos veinte años se ha desarrollado a partir de la hipótesis del gradiente de estrés (HGE). La facilitación puede actuar directa o indirectamente a través de diferentes mecanismos. Los resultados de múltiples investigaciones, indican que la facilitación puede aumentar la diversidad de las especies vegetales en ambientes extremos, donde la presencia de una especie nodriza modifica el ambiente de manera tal, que resulta en una reducción en la frecuencia e intensidad de alguna perturbación física o estrés, permitiendo que las especies menos tolerantes puedan sobrevivir. Sin embargo, existen pocos estudios que cuantifiquen el número de especies que se agregan a una comunidad debido a la facilitación, así el reto es diseñar experimentos y estudios que permitan cuantificar la importancia relativa de la facilitación para el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad en ecosistemas extremos.Citas
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