Nitrogen enrichment and foliar fungal pathogens affect the mechanisms of multispecies plant coexistence.

Granjel, Rodrigo R; Allan, Eric; Godoy, Oscar (2023). Nitrogen enrichment and foliar fungal pathogens affect the mechanisms of multispecies plant coexistence. New Phytologist, 237(6), pp. 2332-2346. Wiley 10.1111/nph.18689

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Changes in resources (e.g., nitrogen) and enemies (e.g., foliar pathogens) are key drivers of plant diversity and composition. However, their effects have not been connected to the niche and fitness differences that determine multispecies coexistence. Here, we combined a structuralist theoretical approach with a detailed grassland experiment factorially applying nitrogen addition and foliar fungal pathogen suppression to evaluate the joint effect of nitrogen and pathogens on niche and fitness differences, across a gradient from two to six interacting species. Nitrogen addition and pathogen suppression modified species interaction strengths and intrinsic growth rates, leading to reduced multispecies fitness differences. However, contrary to expected, we also observed that they promote stabilising niche differences. Although these modifications did not substantially alter species richness, they predicted major changes in community composition. Indirect interactions between species explained these community changes in smaller assemblages (three and four species) but lost importance in favour of direct pairwise interactions when more species were involved (five and six). Altogether, our work shows that explicitly considering the number of interacting species is critical for better understanding the direct and indirect processes by which nitrogen enrichment and pathogen communities shape coexistence in grasslands.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

10 Strategic Research Centers > Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Plant Community Ecology

UniBE Contributor:

Allan, Eric

Subjects:

500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany)

ISSN:

1469-8137

Publisher:

Wiley

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

19 Dec 2022 10:15

Last Modified:

30 May 2023 09:38

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/nph.18689

PubMed ID:

36527234

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Grasslands fitness differences foliar fungal pathogens indirect effects multispecies coexistence niche differences nitrogen enrichment structuralist approach

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/176035

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/176035

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