Villellas Jesús, García María B, Morris William F
Biology Department, Duke University, 125 Science Dr, Durham, NC, 27708, USA.
Departamento Biogeografía y Cambio Global, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, MNCN-CSIC, E-28006, Madrid, Spain.
Oecologia. 2019 Jan;189(1):243-253. doi: 10.1007/s00442-018-4304-2. Epub 2018 Nov 22.
Predictions of plant responses to global warming frequently ignore biotic interactions and intraspecific variation across geographical ranges. Benefactor species play an important role in plant communities by protecting other taxa from harsh environments, but the combined effects of warming and beneficiary species on their performance have been largely unexamined. We analyzed the joint effects of elevated temperature and neighbor removal on the benefactor plant Silene acaulis, in factorial experiments near its low- and high-latitude range limits in Europe. We recorded growth, probability of reproduction and fruit set during 3 years. The effects of enhanced temperature were positive near the northern limit and negative in the south for some performance measures. This pattern was stronger in the presence of neighbors, possibly due to differential thermal tolerances between S. acaulis and beneficiary species in each location. Neighbors generally had a negative or null impact on S. acaulis, in agreement with previous reviews of overall effects of plant-plant interactions on benefactors. However, small S. acaulis individuals in the north showed higher growth when surrounded by neighbors. Finally, the local habitat within each location influenced some effects of experimental treatments. Overall, we show that plant responses to rising temperatures may strongly depend on their position within the geographic range, and on species interactions. Our results also highlight the need to consider features of the interacting taxa, such as whether they are benefactor species, as well as local-scale environmental variation, to predict the joint effects of global warming and biotic interactions on species and communities.
对植物对全球变暖反应的预测常常忽略生物相互作用以及地理范围内的种内变异。受益物种通过保护其他分类群免受恶劣环境影响，在植物群落中发挥着重要作用，但变暖与受益物种对其表现的综合影响在很大程度上尚未得到研究。我们在欧洲其低纬度和高纬度分布范围边界附近进行析因实验，分析了温度升高和去除邻体对受益植物矮雪轮的联合影响。我们记录了3年间的生长、繁殖概率和坐果情况。对于某些表现指标，温度升高的影响在北部分布边界附近呈正向，而在南部分布边界呈负向。在有邻体存在时这种模式更为明显，这可能是由于每个地点矮雪轮与受益物种之间的耐热性差异所致。邻体通常对矮雪轮有负面或无影响，这与之前关于植物 - 植物相互作用对受益物种总体影响的综述一致。然而，北部的矮雪轮小个体在被邻体包围时生长更快。最后，每个地点内的局部生境影响了实验处理的一些效应。总体而言，我们表明植物对气温上升的反应可能强烈取决于它们在地理范围内的位置以及物种间相互作用。我们的结果还强调，为预测全球变暖和生物相互作用对物种及群落的联合影响，需要考虑相互作用分类群的特征，例如它们是否为受益物种，以及局部尺度的环境变异。
