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759 results for “Plant–plant interactions”
Data from: Phylogenetic and functional mechanisms of direct and indirect interactions among alien and native plants
Disentangling direct and indirect interactions among alien and native plants is essential to understanding the success of alien plants in multi-species communities, but studies have only focused on direct pairwise interactions. Moreover, it is also essential to explore phylogenetic and functional mechanisms driving these interactions. In a greenhouse experiment, we selected nine groups of alien and native plant species from the herbaceous flora of Germany to disentangle their direct and indirect interactions. Each group had an alien (A) that is common or rare in Germany (i.e. non-native range), two natives that are phylogenetically closely related (Nclose) and distantly related (Ndist) to A respectively, and a distantly related "target" native (T). We grew the four species of each group alone, and in two-species and three-species combinations. Specifically, we tested whether competition is greater between A and Nclose than between A and Ndist, whether presence of Nclose rather than Ndist indirectly alleviates competition of A on T, and whether these interaction patterns depend on commonness of A. Moreover, we tested how intensity of these interactions is explained by phylogenetic distance, functional traits (height, seed mass, SLA, leaf size, specific root length, leaf area ratio, root length ratio (root length/plant mass), shoot weight ratio) and traits-based functional distance. We found A had stronger competition on Nclose than on Ndist. In turn, A was more suppressed by Nclose than by Ndist, but this was only true for rare rather than common A. The presence of Ndist rather than Nclose indirectly reduced competition of A on T. The intensity of the interactions was not explained by phylogenetic or functional distance, but by some of the functional traits. Specifically, a plant experienced stronger competition when it was shorter and had smaller leaves and lower shoot weight ratio, and when its neighbors were taller, had greater SLA, leaf area ratio and shoot weight ratio, and had a lower root length ratio. Synthesis. Functional traits can help explain competitive interactions. While direct competition tended to be stronger between more closely related alien and native plants, this did not indirectly facilitate other co-occurring native plants.
Data from: Woody plant biomass and carbon exchange depend on elephant-fire interactions across a productivity gradient in African savanna
Elephants and fire are individually well-known disturbance agents within savanna ecosystems, but their interactive role in governing tree-cover dynamics and savanna–forest biome boundaries remains unresolved. Of central importance are the mechanisms by which elephants vs. fire affect tree biomass and cover, and how – over long time periods – both factors interact with rainfall and soils to govern tree biomass and carbon dynamics. Here, we evaluated the response of woody vegetation to 56 years of fire manipulation in South Africa's Kruger National Park, with three fire regimes (annual, triennial and unburned) replicated across a productivity gradient and subject to two periods of contrasting elephant abundances (generated by the cessation of culling in 1994). Higher fire frequencies had a negative effect on woody biomass in the low-elephant period, but this effect was weak to negligible in the high-elephant period as the difference among fire treatments diminished. Moreover, elephants removed increasing amounts of woody biomass as productivity increased across study sites, but fire did not. We infer that elephant-induced tree mortality could overcome increases in woody-plant productivity, while fire-induced mortality alone could not. Elephants caused woody-plant carbon to shift from a sink to a source; this effect was independent of fire treatment, with highest rates of net carbon removal in the wettest and most productive site. Synthesis. Our results reveal a context-dependent interaction between fire and elephants as disturbance agents in savanna: the influence of fire on woody plants was sensitive to the abundance of elephants and diminished with increased plant productivity. In contrast, elephants were capable of shifting landscapes from relatively dense woodland to open savanna, even in unburned sites, and exerted strong impacts irrespective of site conditions and plant productivity.
Data from: Ant-plant interactions evolved through increasing interdependence
Ant–plant interactions are diverse and abundant and include classic models in the study of mutualism and other biotic interactions. By estimating a time-scaled phylogeny of more than 1,700 ant species and a time-scaled phylogeny of more than 10,000 plant genera, we infer when and how interactions between ants and plants evolved and assess their macroevolutionary consequences. We estimate that ant–plant interactions originated in the Mesozoic, when predatory, ground-inhabiting ants first began foraging arboreally. This served as an evolutionary precursor to the use of plant-derived food sources, a dietary transition that likely preceded the evolution of extrafloral nectaries and elaiosomes. Transitions to a strict, plant-derived diet occurred in the Cenozoic, and optimal models of shifts between strict predation and herbivory include omnivory as an intermediate step. Arboreal nesting largely evolved from arboreally foraging lineages relying on a partially or entirely plant-based diet, and was initiated in the Mesozoic, preceding the evolution of domatia. Previous work has suggested enhanced diversification in plants with specialized ant-associated traits, but it appears that for ants, living and feeding on plants does not affect ant diversification. Together, the evidence suggests that ants and plants increasingly relied on one another and incrementally evolved more intricate associations with different macroevolutionary consequences as angiosperms increased their ecological dominance.
Data from: Warming affects different components of plant-herbivore interaction in a simplified community but not net interaction strength
Global warming impacts natural communities through effects on performance of individual species and through changes in the strength of interactions between them. While there is a body of evidence of the former, we lack experimental evidence on potential changes in interaction strengths. Knowledge about multispecies interactions is fundamental to understand the regulation of biodiversity and the impact of climate change on communities. This study investigated the effect of warming on a simplified community consisting of three species: rosy apple aphid Dysaphis plantaginea feeding on plantain, Plantago lanceolata, and a heterospecific neighbouring plant species, perennial ryegrass, Lolium perenne. The aphid does not feed on L. perenne. The experimental design consisted of monocultures and mixtures of L. perenne and P. lanceolata at three temperature levels. We did not find indication for indirect temperature effects on D. plantaginea through changes in leaf nitrogen or relative water content. However, experimental warming affected the life history traits of the aphid directly, in a non-linear manner. Aphids performed best at moderate warming, where they grew faster and had a shorter generation time. In spite of the increased population growth of the aphids under warming, the herbivory rates were not changed and consequently the plant–herbivore interaction was not altered under warming. This suggests reduced consumption rates at higher temperature. Also plant competition affected the aphids but through an interaction with temperature. We provide proof-of-concept that net interactions between plants and herbivores should not change under warming despite direct effects of warming on herbivores when plant–plant interaction are considered. Our study stresses the importance of indirect non–trophic interactions as an additional layer of complexity to improve our understanding of how trophic interactions will alter under climate change.
Data from: Monitoring of plant-environment interactions by high throughput FTIR spectroscopy of pollen
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy enables chemical analysis of pollen samples for plant phenotyping to study plant–environment interactions, such as influence of climate change or pathogens. However, current approach, such as microspectroscopy and attenuated total reflection spectroscopy, does not allow for high-throughput protocols. This study at hand suggests a new spectroscopic method for high-throughput characterization of pollen. Samples were measured as thin films of pollen fragments using a Bruker FTIR spectrometer with a high-throughput eXTension (HTS-XT) unit employing 384-well plates. In total, 146 pollen samples, belonging to 31 different pollen species of Fagaceae and Betulaceae and collected during three consecutive years (2012–2014) at locations in Croatia, Germany and Norway, were analysed. Critical steps in the sample preparation and measurement, such as variabilities between technical replicates, between microplates and between spectrometers, were studied. Measurement variations due to sample preparation, microplate holders and instrumentation were low, and thus allowed differentiation of samples with respect to phylogeny and biogeography. The spectral variability for a range of Fagales species (Fagus, Quercus, Betula, Corylus, Alnus and Ostrya) showed high-species-specific differences in pollen's chemical composition due to either location or year. Statistically significant inter-annual and locational differences in the pollen spectra indicate that pollen chemical composition has high phenotypic plasticity and is influenced by local climate conditions. The variations in composition are connected to lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and sporopollenins that play crucial roles in cold and desiccation tolerance, protection against UV radiation and as material and energy reserves. The results of this study demonstrate the value of high-throughput FTIR approach for the systematic collection of data on ecosystems. The novel FTIR approach offers fast, reliable and economical screening of large number of samples by semi-automated methodology. The high-throughput approach could provide crucial understanding on plant–climate interactions with respect to biochemical variation within genera, species and populations.
Data from: Species-specific plant-soil feedback effects on above-ground plant-insect interactions
1. Plant–soil feedback (PSF) effects on plant performance strongly depend on the plant species that conditioned the soil. Recent studies have shown that PSF can change above-ground plant–insect interactions via soil-mediated changes in plant quality, but whether these effects depend on species-specific soil conditioning is unknown. We examined how PSF effects of several plant species influence above-ground plant–aphid interactions. 2. We grew ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris) in field soil conditioned specifically by 10 plant species, belonging to three functional groups (grasses, forbs and legumes), in a multispecies mixture of the conditioned soils and in control (unconditioned) field soil. We measured plant biomass, concentrations of primary (amino acids) and secondary (pyrrolizidine alkaloids) metabolites in phloem exudates, and performance of the generalist aphid Brachycaudus cardui and the specialist Aphis jacobaeae. 3. We observed that plant species, via species-specific effects on soil fungal communities, exerted unique plant–soil effects on J. vulgaris biomass, amino acid concentrations in phloem exudates and aphid performance. The direction and magnitude of the species-specific PSF effects on aphid performance differed between both aphid species. PSF effects on soil fungal communities, plant biomass and A. jacobaeae performance also differed between grasses, forbs and legumes, with soil conditioning by forbs resulting in lowest plant biomass and aphid performance. 4. Synthesis. Our study provides novel evidence that PSF effects on above-ground plant–insect interactions are highly species specific. Our results add a new dimension to the rapidly developing research fields of PSF and above-below-ground interactions, and highlights that these fields are tightly linked.
Fig. 2 in Larval Feeding Behavior of Gratiana spadicea (Klug) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae) on its Host Plant, Solanum sisymbriifolium Lamarck (Solanaceae): Interaction with Trichomes
Fig. 2. Characteristics of the stellate trichomes removed by Gratiana spadicea (n ¼ 20 per
Supplementary material 1 from: Guo X, Liu X-Y, Jiang S-Y, Guo S-X, Wang J-F, Hu Y, Li S-M, Li H-M, Wang T, Sun Y-K, Li M-Y (2023) Allelopathy and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi interactions shape plant invasion outcomes. NeoBiota 89: 187-207. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.89.110737
Responses of the aboveground biomass of native plant species to the allelopathy (n = 10)
Review of WorldFAIR Agricultural Plant-Pollinator Data Pilot: Plant-flower visitor interactions recorded in 49 sites in Argentina (Buenos Aires: Carlos Casares county) by Marcos Monasterolo (2013-15) and Antonio López Carretero (2016).
<h3>Abstract</h3> <p>Life on Earth is sustained by complex interactions between organisms and their environment. These biotic interactions can be captured in datasets and published digitally. We describe a review process of such an openly accessible digital interactions dataset of known origin, and discuss their outcome. The dataset under review (aka globalbioticinteractions/gonzalez-vaquero2023) has size 1.95MiB and contains 2471 interactions with 1 unique types of associations (e.g., flowersVisitedBy) between 77 primary taxa (e.g., Hirschfeldia incana) and 141 associated taxa (e.g., Palpada). The report includes detailed summaries of interactions data as well as a taxonomic review from multiple perspectives.</p> <p>Please note that the pilot contributors have opted to shared their review and metadata only. This means that data appendices in the data review are not openly available. The data associated are published in the restricted review data publication at </p> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong>filename</strong></td> <td><strong>description</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td>index.pdf</td> <td>data review report as pdf</td> </tr> <tr> <td>index.docx</td> <td>data review report as docx</td> </tr> <tr> <td>index.md</td> <td>data review report as markdown</td> </tr> <tr> <td>index.html</td> <td>data review report as html</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
Data from: Spatial variation in bidirectional pollinator-mediated interactions between two co-flowering species in serpentine plant communities
<p>Pollinator-mediated competition and facilitation are two important mechanisms mediating co-flowering community assembly. Experimental studies, however, have mostly focused on evaluating outcomes for a single interacting partner at a single location. Studies that evaluate spatial variation in the bidirectional effects between co-flowering species are necessary if we aim to advance our understanding of the processes that mediate species coexistence in diverse co-flowering communities. Here, we examine geographic variation (i.e., at landscape level) in bidirectional pollinator-mediated effects between co-flowering <em>Mimulus guttatus</em> and <em>Delphinium uliginosum</em>. We evaluated effects on pollen transfer dynamics (conspecific and heterospecific pollen deposition) and plant reproductive success. We found evidence of asymmetrical effects (one species is disrupted and the other one is facilitated) but the effects were highly dependent on geographical location. Furthermore, effects on pollen transfer dynamics did not always translate to effects on overall plant reproductive success (i.e., pollen tube growth) highlighting the importance of evaluating effects at multiple stages of the pollination process. Overall, our results provide evidence of a spatial mosaic of pollinator-mediated interactions between co-flowering species and suggest that community assembly processes could result from competition and facilitation acting simultaneously. Our study highlights the importance of experimental studies that evaluate the prevalence of competitive and facilitative interactions in the field, and that expand across a wide geographical context, in order to more fully understand the mechanisms that shape plant communities in nature.</p>
Evaluation of foliar fungus-mediated interactions with below- and aboveground enemies of the invasive plant Ageratina adenophora
<p>Plant–fungal associations are frequently key drivers of plant invasion success. Foliar fungi can benefit their invasive hosts by enhancing growth promotion, disease resistance and environmental stress tolerance. However, the roles of foliar fungi may vary when a given invasive plant faces different stresses. In this study, we designed three independent experiments to evaluate the effects of a foliar fungus, <i>Colletotrichum</i> sp., on the growth performance of the invasive plant <i>Ageratina adenophora</i> under different soil conditions, as well as the responses of <i>A. adenophora</i> to the foliar fungal pathogen <i>Diaporthe helianthi</i> and to herbivory. We found that the soil type was the most influential factor for the growth of <i>A. adenophora</i>. The role of the foliar fungus <i>Colletotrichum</i> sp. varied in the different soil types but generally adversely affected leaf development in <i>A. adenophora</i>. <i>Colletotrichum</i> sp. may be a weak latent foliar pathogen that can enhance the pathogenicity of <i>D. helianthi</i> on leaves of <i>A. adenophora</i> and marginally reduce signs of herbivory by natural insects in the wild on <i>A. adenophora</i> seedlings.In general, the benefits of the foliar fungus<i> Colletotrichum</i> to the fitness of <i>A. adenophora</i> are not significant in the context of this experimental design. However, our data highlight the need to consider both aboveground and belowground biota in different soil habitats when evaluating the effects of foliar fungi.</p>
Global synthesis of effects of plant species diversity on trophic groups and interactions
<p>Numerous studies have demonstrated that plant species diversity enhances ecosystem functioning in terrestrial ecosystems, including diversity effects on insects (herbivores, predators and parasitoids) and plants. However, the effects of increased plant diversity across trophic levels in different ecosystems and biomes have not yet been explored on a global scale. Through a global meta-analysis of 2,914 observations from 351 studies, we found that increased plant species richness reduced herbivore abundance and damage but increased predator and parasitoid abundance, predation, parasitism and overall plant performance. Moreover, increased predator/parasitoid performance was correlated with reduced herbivore abundance and enhanced plant performance. We conclude that increasing plant species diversity promotes beneficial trophic interactions between insects and plants, ultimately contributing to increased ecosystem services.</p>
Plant cover and plant-pollinator interactions in Central European grasslands (Poland/Czech Republic)
<p><span>C</span>omplex socio-economic, political and demographic factors have driven the increased conversion of Europe's semi-natural grasslands to intensive pastures. This trend is particularly strong in some of the most biodiverse regions of the continent, such as Central and Eastern Europe. Intensive grazing is known to decrease species diversity and alter the composition of plant and insect communities. Comparatively little is known, however, about how intensive grazing influences plant functional traits related to pollination and the structure of plant-pollinator interactions. In traditional hay meadows and intensive pastures in Central Europe, we contrasted the taxonomic and functional group diversity and composition, the structure of plant-pollinator interactions and the roles of individual species in networks. We found mostly lower taxonomic and functional diversity of plants and insects in intensive pastures, as well as strong compositional differences among the two grassland management types. Intensive pastures were dominated by a single plant with a specialized flower structure that is only accessible to a few pollinator groups. As a result, intensive pastures have lower diversity and specificity of interactions, higher amount of resource overlap, more uniform interaction strength and lower network modularity. These findings stand in contrast to studies in which plants with more generalized flower traits dominated pastures. Our results thus highlight the importance of the functional traits of dominant species in mediating the consequences of intensive pasture management on plant-pollinator networks. These findings could further contribute to strategies aimed at mitigating the impact of intensive grazing on plant and pollinator communities.</p>
Molecular food webs of bat-plant interactions during an extreme El Nino event
<p>Interaction network structure reflects the ecological mechanisms acting within biological communities, which are affected by environmental conditions. In tropical forests, higher precipitation usually increases fruit production, which may lead frugivores to increase specialization, resulting in more modular and less nested animal-plant networks. In these ecosystems, El Niño is a major driver of precipitation, however, we still lack knowledge of how species interactions change under this influence. To understand bat-plant network structure during an extreme ENSO event, we determined the links between frugivorous bat species and the plants they consume by DNA barcoding seeds and pulp in bat faeces. These interactions were recorded in the dry forest and rainforest of Costa Rica, during the dry and the wet seasons of an extreme El Niño year. From these we constructed seasonal and whole-year bat-plant networks and analyzed their structures and dissimilarities. In general, networks had low nestedness, high modularity, and were dominated by one large compartment which included most species and interactions. Contrary to our expectations, networks were less nested and more modular in drier conditions, both in the comparison between forest types and between seasons. We suggest that increased competition, when resources are scarce during drier seasons and habitats, lead to higher resource partitioning among bats and thus higher modularity. Moreover, we have found similar network structures between dry and rainforests during El Niño and non El Niño years. Finally, most interaction dissimilarity among networks occurred due to interaction rewiring among species, potentially driven by seasonal changes in resource availability.</p>
Plant-plant interactions change during succession on nurse logs in a northern temperate rainforest
Plant-plant interactions change through succession from facilitative to competitive. At early stages of succession, early-colonizing plants can increase the survival and reproductive output of other plants by ameliorating disturbance and stressful conditions. At later stages of succession, plant interactions are more competitive as plants put more energy towards growth and reproduction. In northern temperate rainforests, gap dynamics result in tree falls that facilitate tree regeneration (nurse logs) and bryophyte succession. How bryophyte-tree seedling interactions vary through log succession remains unclear. We examined the relationships of tree seedlings, bryophyte community composition, bryophyte depth, and percent canopy cover in 166 0.5 m x 1.0 m plots on nurse logs and the forest floor in the Hoh rainforest in Washington, USA to test the hypothesis that bryophyte-tree seedling interactions change from facilitative to competitive as the log decays. Tree seedling density was highest on young logs with early-colonizing bryophyte species (e.g., Rhizomnium glabrescens), and lowest on decayed logs with Hylocomium splendens, a long-lived moss that reaches depths >20 cm. As a result, bryophyte depth increased with nurse log decay and was negatively associated with tree seedling density. Tree seedling density was 4.6x higher on nurse logs than on the forest floor, which was likely due to competitive exclusion by forest floor plants, such as H. splendens. Nurse logs had 17 species of bryophytes while the forest floor had six, indicating that nurse logs contribute to maintaining bryophyte diversity. Nurse logs enable both tree seedlings and smaller bryophyte species to avoid competition with forest floor plants, including the dominant bryophyte, H. splendens. H. splendens is likely a widespread driver of plant community structure given its dominance in northern temperate forests. Our findings indicate that plant-plant interactions shift with succession on nurse logs from facilitative to competitive and, thus, influence forest community structure and dynamics. --
Observations on the interaction between plant growth-promoting bacteria and the root knot nematode Meloidogyne javanica
<p>This is the data set associated with the paper currently under peer review, on the biocontrol potential of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria against root knot nematodes. </p>
Supplementary material 2 from: Swenson SJ, Eichler L, Hörren T, Kolter A, Köthe S, Lehmann GUC, Meinel G, Mühlethaler R, Sorg M, Gemeinholzer B (2022) The potential of metabarcoding plant components of Malaise trap samples to enhance knowledge of plant-insect interactions. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics 6: e85213. https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.6.85213
Table S2
Supplementary material 1 from: Swenson SJ, Eichler L, Hörren T, Kolter A, Köthe S, Lehmann GUC, Meinel G, Mühlethaler R, Sorg M, Gemeinholzer B (2022) The potential of metabarcoding plant components of Malaise trap samples to enhance knowledge of plant-insect interactions. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics 6: e85213. https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.6.85213
Table S1
Data for: Effects of biotic interactions on plant fecundity depend on spatial and functional structure of communities and time since disturbance
<p><span>Biotic interactions in plant communities affect individual fitness and community dynamics. Interactions between plants vary in space, over time and with organisational complexity. Yet it is challenging to quantify temporal, spatial and functional determinants of different types of interactions between long-lived perennial plant species and their effect on lifetime fecundity. We studied how plant-plant, pollinator- and seed predator-mediated interactions affect year-to-year variation in three fecundity components (cone production, seed set and seed survival) during post-fire recovery. Age-stratified data on the three fecundity components were collected in 19 even-aged communities comprising 20 serotinous <em>Protea </em>shrub species in the South African Fynbos. We analyse data on these fecundity components with neighbourhood models to infer the sign and strength of interactions throughout post-disturbance recovery, the neighbour plant traits that shape them and the spatial scale at which interactions take place. For each fecundity component, these models describe how neighbourhood effects change over time and with spatial distance between plants. For each focal plant, we then predicted neighbourhood effects on individual fecundity components and cumulative reproductive output at different post-fire stand ages. Competitive effects on cone production and seed set increased with post-fire stand age as biomass and floral resources for pollinators build up. In contrast, neighbourhood effects on seed survival were weak throughout post-disturbance recovery. Plant-plant interactions were shaped by neighbour traits related to resource acquisition, whereas animal-mediated interactions depended on neighbour traits related to resource availability for pollinators and seed predators. The spatial scale of the interactions increased from plant-plant over predator-mediated to pollinator-mediated interactions. The joint effect of these interactions on cumulative reproductive output caused the proportion of focal plants experiencing competition to increase with time since fire. We show that temporal changes in biotic interactions throughout post-disturbance recovery of perennial plant communities depend on functional traits and can be integrated to neighbourhood effects on lifetime fecundity. Studying the temporal, spatial and functional determinants of neighbourhood effects on lifetime fecundity is important for predicting not only individual plant fitness, but also population and community dynamics in changing environments. </span></p>
Exposure of Bromus hordeaceus to petroleum and plant-based micro- and nanoplastics: Impacts and plant-plastic interactions vary depending on polymer type and growth phase
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