Six-year removal of co-dominant grasses alleviated competitive pressure on subdominant grasses but dominant shrub removal had neutral effects in a subalpine ecosystem
The ‘stress-gradient hypothesis’ predicts increasing facilitative interactions with increasing environmental stress, but it remains unclear if the prevailing type of interaction (i.e. facilitative or competitive) between dominant and subordinate plant species occurring in harsh environments is depen...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Global Ecology and Conservation |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989420307083 |
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| author | Wenjin Li Johannes M.H. Knops G. Kenny Png Xi Yan Huan Dong Jinhua Li Huakun Zhou Rubén Díaz Sierra |
| author_facet | Wenjin Li Johannes M.H. Knops G. Kenny Png Xi Yan Huan Dong Jinhua Li Huakun Zhou Rubén Díaz Sierra |
| author_sort | Wenjin Li |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The ‘stress-gradient hypothesis’ predicts increasing facilitative interactions with increasing environmental stress, but it remains unclear if the prevailing type of interaction (i.e. facilitative or competitive) between dominant and subordinate plant species occurring in harsh environments is dependent on the plant functional type. In addition, most plant-species removal experiments in grasslands are short-term (1–2 years), which may imprecisely reflect transient effects arising from methodological limitations. We conducted a dominant species removal experiment in a subalpine ecosystem, containing a mosaic of grass-dominated and shrub-dominated community patches, both of which are common in the subalpine zone of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We examined the direction and magnitude of the effects of three co-dominant grass and a dominant shrub species on subordinate species richness and biomass over a 6-year period. Removal of the dominant grass species alleviated their competitive pressure on subdominant grasses, which resulted in similar total and grass biomass detected in the final year of the study. By contrast, shrub removal showed no effects on its subordinate species biomass. Furthermore, neither the removal of the dominant shrubs nor the grasses altered their respective subordinate species richness. Thus, in subalpine ecosystems that experience harsh environmental conditions, our results showed that the direction of interactive effects of dominant plant species on subordinate species may be dependent on the plant functional type and are not necessarily facilitative. Furthermore, we showed that longer-term plant-removal experiment observations may be required to better determine the effects of species removal for this subalpine and other montane ecosystem(s). |
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| id | doaj.art-74db6ce49f1549fc8ca3ff17666d229c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2351-9894 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T20:18:14Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
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| series | Global Ecology and Conservation |
| spelling | doaj.art-74db6ce49f1549fc8ca3ff17666d229c2022-12-21T22:48:48ZengElsevierGlobal Ecology and Conservation2351-98942020-09-0123e01167Six-year removal of co-dominant grasses alleviated competitive pressure on subdominant grasses but dominant shrub removal had neutral effects in a subalpine ecosystemWenjin Li0Johannes M.H. Knops1G. Kenny Png2Xi Yan3Huan Dong4Jinhua Li5Huakun Zhou6Rubén Díaz Sierra7State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China; Corresponding author.Health and Environmental Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, 215123, ChinaSoil and Ecosystem Ecology Laboratory, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, United Kingdom; Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave, Singapore, 639798, SingaporeState Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, ChinaQinghai Province Key Laboratory of Restoration Ecology of Cold Area, The Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810008, Qinghai, ChinaMathematical and Fluid Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, 28040, SpainThe ‘stress-gradient hypothesis’ predicts increasing facilitative interactions with increasing environmental stress, but it remains unclear if the prevailing type of interaction (i.e. facilitative or competitive) between dominant and subordinate plant species occurring in harsh environments is dependent on the plant functional type. In addition, most plant-species removal experiments in grasslands are short-term (1–2 years), which may imprecisely reflect transient effects arising from methodological limitations. We conducted a dominant species removal experiment in a subalpine ecosystem, containing a mosaic of grass-dominated and shrub-dominated community patches, both of which are common in the subalpine zone of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We examined the direction and magnitude of the effects of three co-dominant grass and a dominant shrub species on subordinate species richness and biomass over a 6-year period. Removal of the dominant grass species alleviated their competitive pressure on subdominant grasses, which resulted in similar total and grass biomass detected in the final year of the study. By contrast, shrub removal showed no effects on its subordinate species biomass. Furthermore, neither the removal of the dominant shrubs nor the grasses altered their respective subordinate species richness. Thus, in subalpine ecosystems that experience harsh environmental conditions, our results showed that the direction of interactive effects of dominant plant species on subordinate species may be dependent on the plant functional type and are not necessarily facilitative. Furthermore, we showed that longer-term plant-removal experiment observations may be required to better determine the effects of species removal for this subalpine and other montane ecosystem(s).http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989420307083Stress-gradient hypothesisRemoval experimentsPlant functional typeCompetition and facilitationGrasslandQinghai-Tibetan Plateau |
| spellingShingle | Wenjin Li Johannes M.H. Knops G. Kenny Png Xi Yan Huan Dong Jinhua Li Huakun Zhou Rubén Díaz Sierra Six-year removal of co-dominant grasses alleviated competitive pressure on subdominant grasses but dominant shrub removal had neutral effects in a subalpine ecosystem Global Ecology and Conservation Stress-gradient hypothesis Removal experiments Plant functional type Competition and facilitation Grassland Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau |
| title | Six-year removal of co-dominant grasses alleviated competitive pressure on subdominant grasses but dominant shrub removal had neutral effects in a subalpine ecosystem |
| title_full | Six-year removal of co-dominant grasses alleviated competitive pressure on subdominant grasses but dominant shrub removal had neutral effects in a subalpine ecosystem |
| title_fullStr | Six-year removal of co-dominant grasses alleviated competitive pressure on subdominant grasses but dominant shrub removal had neutral effects in a subalpine ecosystem |
| title_full_unstemmed | Six-year removal of co-dominant grasses alleviated competitive pressure on subdominant grasses but dominant shrub removal had neutral effects in a subalpine ecosystem |
| title_short | Six-year removal of co-dominant grasses alleviated competitive pressure on subdominant grasses but dominant shrub removal had neutral effects in a subalpine ecosystem |
| title_sort | six year removal of co dominant grasses alleviated competitive pressure on subdominant grasses but dominant shrub removal had neutral effects in a subalpine ecosystem |
| topic | Stress-gradient hypothesis Removal experiments Plant functional type Competition and facilitation Grassland Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989420307083 |
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