Am Nat. 2024 Apr;203(4):458-472. doi: 10.1086/729222. Epub 2024 Feb 20.
AbstractEcologists increasingly recognize that interactions between two species can be affected by the density of a third species. How these higher-order interactions (HOIs) affect species persistence remains poorly understood. To explore the effect of HOIs stemming from multiple trophic layers on a plant community composition, we experimentally built a mesocosm with three plants and three pollinator species arranged in a fully nested and modified network structure. We estimated pairwise interactions among plants and between plants and pollinators, as well as HOIs initiated by a plant or a pollinator affecting plant species pairs. Using a structuralist approach, we evaluated the consequences of the statistically supported HOIs on the persistence probability of each of the three competing plant species and their combinations. HOIs substantially redistribute the strength and sign of pairwise interactions between plant species, promoting the opportunities for multispecies communities to persist compared with a non-HOI scenario. However, the physical elimination of a plant-pollinator link in the modified network structure promotes changes in per capita pairwise interactions and HOIs, resulting in a single-species community. Our study provides empirical evidence of the joint importance of HOIs and network structure in determining species persistence within diverse communities.
摘要 生态学家越来越认识到，两种物种之间的相互作用可能会受到第三种物种密度的影响。这些更高阶的相互作用（HOI）如何影响物种的持久性仍知之甚少。为了探索源于多个营养层的 HOI 对植物群落组成的影响，我们通过实验构建了一个包含三个植物和三个传粉者物种的中观系统，这些物种以完全嵌套和修改后的网络结构排列。我们估计了植物之间以及植物与传粉者之间的成对相互作用，以及由植物或传粉者发起的影响植物种对的 HOI。使用结构主义方法，我们评估了统计上支持的 HOI 对三个竞争植物物种及其组合的每个物种的生存概率的影响。HOI 大大重新分配了植物种之间的成对相互作用的强度和符号，与非 HOI 情景相比，促进了多物种群落的生存机会。然而，修改后的网络结构中植物-传粉者联系的物理消除促进了每个体对的成对相互作用和 HOI 的变化，导致单一种群的出现。我们的研究提供了经验证据，证明了 HOI 和网络结构在确定不同群落中物种的持久性方面的共同重要性。
