Competitive relationships in a fertile grassland community – does size matter?
Competitive relationships in a fertile grassland community – does size matter?
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DOI：
10.1007/s00442-002-0935-3
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发表时间：
2002-06
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
J. Warren;F. Wilson;A. Diaz
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
J. Warren;F. Wilson;A. Diaz
目前，关于调控植物群落的两种不同机制的相对重要性存在很多争论。其中一种机制被认为是由于具有特定特征的物种在群落中占主导地位，从而决定了其他物种的丰度。第二种机制被认为是由于不同物种利用不同资源的互补性，从而促进共存。为了研究这两种机制的相关重要性，我们进行了一系列盆栽试验，通过单作、两两比较以及它们的移除对剩余群落的影响来估计8种草的竞争关系。虽然表面上看，地上生物量似乎是竞争能力的一个很好的预测指标，但更详细的分析表明，作为一个物种对群落影响的预测指标，大小是无效的。相比之下，有证据表明，互补性在决定物种-物种相互作用方面很重要，无论是在物种对水平上，还是在群落水平上。互补性在不同群落中比在成对相互作用中更为重要，因为互补性是物种多样性的一种涌现特性。
There is currently much debate about the relative importance of two contrasting mechanisms thought to be involved in regulating plant communities. One of these mechanisms is thought to result from species which possess particular traits, becoming dominant within the community and thus determining the abundance of other species. The second mechanism is thought to result from the complementarity of different species exploiting different resources and thus promoting co-existence. To investigate the relevant importance of these two mechanisms, a series of pot experiments were performed in which the competitive relationships of eight species of grass were estimated in monoculture, in pair-wise comparisons and by the impact of their removal on the remaining community. Although superficially above-ground biomass appeared to be a good predictor of competitive ability, more detailed analysis revealed that size was ineffective as a predictor of a species' impact on a community. In contrast there was evidence that complementarity was important in determining species–species interactions both at the level of pairs of species and even more so at community level. It is argued that complementarity is more important in diverse communities than in pair-wise interactions because complementarity is an emergent property of species diversity.