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Individual species affect plant traits structure in their surroundings: evidence of functional mechanisms of assembly

  • Special Topic on Functional Traits
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Abstract

Evaluating community assembly through the use of functional traits is a promising tool for testing predictions arising from Niche and Coexistence theories. Although interactions among neighboring species and their inter-specific differences are known drivers of coexistence with a strong spatial signal, assessing the role of individual species on the functional structure of the community at different spatial scales remains a challenge. Here, we ask whether individual species exert a measurable effect on the spatial organization of different functional traits in local assemblages. We first propose and compute two functions that describe different aspects of functional trait organization around individual species at multiple scales: individual weighted mean area relationship and individual functional diversity area relationship. Secondly, we develop a conceptual model on the relationship and simultaneous variation of these two metrics, providing five alternative scenarios in response to the ability of some target species to modify its neighbor environment and the possible assembly mechanisms involved. Our results show that some species influence the spatial structure of specific functional traits, but their effects were always restricted to the finest spatial scales. In the basis of our conceptual model, the observed patterns point to two main mechanisms driving the functional structure of the community at the fine scale, “biotic” filtering meditated by individual species and resource partitioning driven by indirect facilitation rather than by competitive mechanisms.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partially supported by projects CGL2009-13190-C03-02 (ISLAS ESPACIO), CGL2012-38427 (MOUNTAINS) and REMEDINAL2 (P2009/AMB-1783). J.C.L. was supported by a FPI Grant linked to project CGL-2009-13190 (ISLAS), which was awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. We thank Carlos Díaz for his valuable assistance in field and laboratory work, and Marcos Méndez for his valuable comments and suggestions regarding Fig. 1. We also thank Alex Fajardo, Eric Marcon and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments on a previous version.

Author contribution statement

AE and MC originally formulated the idea, AE, MC, DSP and JCL conceived and designed the field and laboratory work, MC developed the methodology, JCL conducted field and laboratory work, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript, AE, MC, DSP provided technical assistance and editorial advice.

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  1. Departamento de Biología y Geología, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, Spain

    Julia Chacón-Labella, Marcelino de la Cruz, David S. Pescador & Adrián Escudero

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  1. Julia Chacón-Labella
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  2. Marcelino de la Cruz
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  3. David S. Pescador
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Correspondence to Julia Chacón-Labella.

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Communicated by Fernando Valladares.

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Chacón-Labella, J., de la Cruz, M., Pescador, D.S. et al. Individual species affect plant traits structure in their surroundings: evidence of functional mechanisms of assembly. Oecologia 180, 975–987 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-016-3547-z

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