Keywords
abiotic stress
plant community
How to Cite
Abstract
Negative interactions among plants are considered the most important factors determining the shape, structure and dynamics of plant communities, and because of this viewpoint, much research has been devoted to understanding the nature of competitive interactions among plants. However, the result of multiple studies in the last two decades had shown that positive interaction could also play an important role determining the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems. Facilitation is a type of nontrophic positive interaction that occurs between physiologically independent individuals and is mediated through changes in the abiotic environment or through other organisms. Most of the research in the field of facilitation in the last twenty years has been developed from the stress gradient hypothesis (SGH). Facilitation may act directly or indirectly through different mechanisms. The results of multiple investigations indicate that facilitation can increase the diversity of plant species in harsh environments, where facilitator species can mitigate extreme conditions and benefit other species. Still, few studies have quantified the number of species that are added to a community because facilitation and the challenge is to design experiments and studies to quantify the relative importance of the provision for the maintenance of biodiversity in extreme environments.References
Anthelme, F., Cavieres, L.A. y Dangles, O. 2014. Facilitation among plants in alpine environments in the face of climate change. Frontiers in Plant Science, 5: 387.
Badano, E.I., Villarroel, E., Bustamante, R.O., Marquet, P.A. y Cavieres, L.A. 2007. Ecosystem engineering facilitates invasions by exotic plants in high-Andean ecosystems. Journal of Ecology 95: 682–688.
Badano, E., Jones, C.G., Cavieres, L.A. y Wright. J.P. 2006. Assessing impacts of ecosystem engineers on community organization: a general approach illustrated by effects of a high-Andean cushion plant. Oikos 115: 369–385.
Bertness, M. y Ewanchuk. P. 2002. Latitudinal and climatedriven variation in the strength and nature of biological interactions in New England salt marshes. Oecologia 132: 392–401.
Bronstein, J.L. 2009. The evolution of facilitation and mutualism. Journal of Ecology 97: 1160–1170.
Brooker, R.W. 2006. Plant-plant interactions and environmental change. The New phytologist 171: 271–84.
Brooker, R.W., Maestre, F.T., Callaway, R.M., Lortie, C.L., Cavieres, L.A., Kunstler, G., Liancourt, P., Tielbörger, K., Travis, J.M.J., Anthelme, F., Armas, C., Coll, L., Corcket, E., Delzon, S., Forey, E., Kikvidze, Z., Olofsson, J., Pugnaire, F., Quiroz, C. L., Saccone, P., Schiffers, K., Seifan, M., Touzard, B. y Michalet, R. 2008. Facilitation in plant communities: the past, the present, and the future. Journal of Ecology 96: 18–34.
Bruno, J.F., Stachowicz, J.J. y Bertness, M.D. 2003. Inclusion of facilitation into ecological theory. Trends in Ecology y Evolution 18: 119–125.
Callaway, R.M. 2007. Positive Interactions and Interdependence in Plant Communities. Springer.
Callaway, R.M., Brooker, R.W., Choler, P., Kikvidze, Z., Lortie, C.J., Michalet, R., Paolini, L., Pugnaire, F.I., Newingham, B., Aschehoug, E.T., Armas, C., Kikodze, D. y Cook, B.J. 2002. Positive interactions among alpine plants increase with stress. Nature 417: 844–8.
Castanho, C. de T., y Prado, P. I. 2014. Benefit of shading by nurse plant does not change along a stress gradient in a coastal dune. PloS one 9: e105082.
Cavieres, L.A. y Badano, E.I. 2010. Consequences of facilitation on species diversity in terrestrial plant communities. In: Pugnaire, F.I. (ed.) Positive plant interactions and community dynamics. pp. 39–57. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, US.
Cavieres, L.A., Badano, E.I., Sierra-Almeida, A., Gómez-González, S. y Molina-Montenegro, M.A. 2006. Positive interactions between alpine plant species and the nurse cushion plant Laretia acaulis do not increase with elevation in the Andes of central Chile. The New phytologist 169: 59–69.
Flores, J., y Jurado, E. 2003. Are nurse-protégé interactions more common among plants from arid environments? Journal of Vegetation Science 14: 911–916.
Franco, A., y Nobel, P. 1989. Effect of nurse plants on the micro-habitat and growth of cacti. Journal of Ecology 77: 870–886.
Franks, S.J. 2003. Facilitation in multiple life-history stages: evidence for nucleated succession in coastal dunes. Plant Ecology 168: 1–11.
Gómez-Aparicio, L., Zamora, R., Gómez, J.M., Hódar, J.A., Castro, J. y Baraza, E. 2004. Applying plant facilitation to forest restoration: a meta-analysis of the use of shrubs as nurse plants. Ecological Applications 14: 1128–1138.
Grace, J.B. 1991. A Clarification of the Debate Between Grime and Tilman. Functional Ecology 5: 583.
Gutiérrez, J. R., Meserve, P.L., Contreas, L.C., Vásquez, H. y Jaksic, F.M. 1993. Spatial distribution of soil nutrients and ephemeral plants underneath and outside the canopy of Porlieria chilensis shrubs (Zygophyllaceae) in arid coastal Chile. Oecologia 95: 347–352.
Hacker, S.D. y Gaines, S.D. 1997. Some implications of direct positive interactions for community species diversity. Ecology 78: 1990–2003.
He, Q. y Bertness, M.D. 2014. Extreme stresses, niches, and positive species interactions along stress gradients. Ecology 95: 1437-1443.
Holmgren, M. y Scheffer, M. 2010. Strong facilitation in mild environments: the stress gradient hypothesis revisited. Journal of Ecology 98: 1269–1275.
Huiskes, A.H.L. 1979. Damage to marram grass Ammophila arenaria by larvae of Meromyza pratorum (Diptera). Ecography 2: 182–185.
Johnson, S.D., Peter, C.I., Nilsson, L.A. y Ågren, J. 2003. Pollination success in a deceptive orchid is enhanced by co-occurring rewarding magnet plants. Ecology 84: 2919–2927.
Kowalchuk, G.A., Gerards, S. y W. Woldendorp, J. 1997. Detection and characterization of fungal infections of Ammophila arenaria (marram grass) roots by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of specifically amplified 18s rDNA. Applied and environmental microbiology 63: 3858–65.
Larrea-Alcázar, D., López, R.P. y Barrientos, D. 2005. The nurse-plant effect of Prosopis flexuosa D.C. (Leguminosae-Mimosoideae) in a dry valley of the Bolivian Andes 18: 89–95.
Laverty, T.M. 1992. Plant interactions for pollinator visits: a test of the magnet species effect. Oecologia 89: 502–508.
Maestre, F.T., Callaway, R.M., Valladares, F. y Lortie, C.J. 2009. Refining the stress-gradient hypothesis for competition and facilitation in plant communities. Journal of Ecology 97: 199–205.
Maestre, F.T., Valladares, F. y Reynolds, J.F. 2005. Is the change of plant-plant interactions with abiotic stress predictable? A meta-analysis of field results in arid environments. Journal of Ecology 93:748–757.
Maestre, F.T. y Cortina, J. 2004. Do positive interactions increase with abiotic stress? A test from a semi-arid steppe. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 271: S331– S333.
McIntire, E.J.B. y Fajardo, A. 2014. Facilitation as a ubiquitous driver of biodiversity. New Phytol, 201: 403–416.
Michalet, R., Brooker, R.W., Cavieres, L.A., Kikvidze, Z., Lortie, C.J., Pugnaire, F.I., Valiente-Banuet, A. y Callaway, R.M. 2006. Do biotic interactions shape both sides of the humped-back model of species richness in plant communities? Ecology letters 9: 767–73.
Nuñez, C.I., Aizen, M.A., y Ezcurra, C. 1999. Species associations and nurse plant effects in patches of high-Andean vegetation. Journal of Vegetation Science 10: 357–364.
Padilla, F.M. y Pugnaire, F.I. 2006. The role of nurse plants in the restoration of degraded environments. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 4: 196–202.
Raffaele, E. y Veblen, T.T. 1998. Facilitation by nurse shrubs of resprouting behavior in a post-fire shrubland in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Journal of Vegetation Science 9: 693–698.
Ren, H., Yang, L. y Liu, N. 2008. Nurse plant theory and its application in ecological restoration in lower subtropics of China. Progress in Natural Science 18: 137–142.
Rossi, B.E. y Villagra, P.E. 2003. Effects of Prosopis flexuosa on soil properties and the spatial pattern of understorey species in arid Argentina. Journal of Vegetation Science 14: 543–550.
Rousset, O. y Lepart, J. 2000. Positive and negative interactions at different life stages of a colonizing species (Quercus humilis). Journal of Ecology 88: 401–412.
Shumway, S.W. 2000. Facilitative effects of a sand dune shrub on species growing beneath the shrub canopy. Oecologia 124: 138–148.
Smit, C., Béguin, D., Buttler, A. y Müller-Schärer, H. 2005. Safe sites for tree regeneration in wooded pastures: A case of associational resistance? Journal of Vegetation Science 16: 209–214.
Smit, C., Den Ouden, J. y Muller-Scharer, H. 2006. Unpalatable plants facilitate tree sapling survival in wooded pastures. Journal of Applied Ecology 43: 305–312.
Soliveres, S., Smit, C. y Maestre, F.T. 2015. Moving forward on facilitation research: response to changing environments and effects on the diversity, functioning and evolution of plant communities. Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 90: 297–313.
Stiling, P. y Cornelissen, T. 2007. How does elevated carbon dioxide (CO 2) affect plant–herbivore interactions? A field experiment and meta-analysis of CO 2 -mediated changes on plant chemistry and herbivore performance. Global Change Biology 13: 1823–1842.
Suzán, H., Nabhan, G.P. y Patten, D.T. 1996. The importance of Olneya tesota as a nurse plant in the Sonoran Desert. Journal of Vegetation Science 7: 635–644.
Teste, F.P., Simard, S.W., Durall, D.M., Guy, R.D., Jones, M.D. y Schoonmaker, A.L. 2009. Access to mycorrhizal networks and roots of trees: importance for seedling survival and resource transfer. Ecology 90: 2808–2822.
Tewksbury J. y Lloyd D. 2001. Positive interactions under nurse-plants: spatial scale, stress gradients and benefactor size. Oecologia 127: 425–434.
Tirado, R. y Pugnaire, F.I. 2003. Shrub spatial aggregation and consequences for reproductive success. Oecologia 136: 296–301.
Valiente-Banuet, A., y Verdú, M. 2007. Facilitation can increase the phylogenetic diversity of plant communities. Ecology letters 10: 1029–36.
De Villiers, A.J., Van Rooyen, M.W. y Theron, G.K. 2001. The role of facilitation in seedling recruitment and survival patterns, in the Strandveld Succulent Karoo, South Africa. Journal of Arid Environments 49: 809–821.
van Zonneveld, M.J., Gutiérrez, J.R. y Holmgren, M. 2012. Shrub facilitation increases plant diversity along an arid scrubland-temperate rain forest boundary in South America. Journal of Vegetation Science 23: 541–551.