Hiscox Jennifer, Savoury Melanie, Toledo Selin, Kingscott-Edmunds James, Bettridge Aimee, Waili Nasra Al, Boddy Lynne
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2017 Mar 1;93(3). doi: 10.1093/femsec/fix014.
Understanding interspecific interactions is key to explaining and modelling community development and associated ecosystem function. Most interactions research has focused on pairwise combinations, overlooking the complexity of multispecies communities. This study investigated three-way interactions between saprotrophic fungi in wood and across soil, and indicated that pairwise combinations are often inaccurate predictors of the outcomes of multispecies competition in wood block interactions. This inconsistency was especially true of intransitive combinations, resulting in increased species coexistence within the resource. Furthermore, the addition of a third competitor frequently destabilised the otherwise consistent outcomes of pairwise combinations in wood blocks, which occasionally resulted in altered resource decomposition rates, depending on the relative decay abilities of the species involved. Conversely, interaction outcomes in soil microcosms were unaffected by the presence of a third combatant. Multispecies interactions promoted species diversity within natural resources, and made community dynamics less consistent than could be predicted from pairwise interaction studies.
理解种间相互作用是解释和模拟群落发展及相关生态系统功能的关键。大多数相互作用研究都集中在成对组合上，忽略了多物种群落的复杂性。本研究调查了木材中腐生真菌与土壤中腐生真菌之间的三方相互作用，结果表明，成对组合往往无法准确预测木块相互作用中多物种竞争的结果。这种不一致在非传递性组合中尤为明显，导致资源内物种共存增加。此外，添加第三个竞争者常常会破坏木块中原本一致的成对组合结果，偶尔还会导致资源分解速率改变，这取决于所涉及物种的相对腐烂能力。相反，土壤微观世界中的相互作用结果不受第三个竞争者存在的影响。多物种相互作用促进了自然资源中的物种多样性，并使群落动态比成对相互作用研究所预测的更不一致。
