Abstract
Land-use generates multiple stress factors, and we need to understand their effects on plant–plant interactions to predict the consequences of land-use intensification. The stress–gradient hypothesis predicts that the relative strength of positive and negative interactions changes inversely under increasing environmental stress. However, the outcome of interactions also depends on stress factor’s complexity, the scale of analysis, and the role of functional traits in structuring the community. We evaluated plant–plant co-occurrences in a temperate forest, aiming to identify changes in pairwise and network metrics under increasing silvopastoral use intensity. Proportionally, positive co-occurrences were more frequent under high than low use, while negative co-occurrences were more frequent under low than high. Networks of negative co-occurrences showed higher centralization under low use, while networks of positive co-occurrences showed lower modularity and higher centralization under high use. We found a partial relationship between co-occurrences and key functional traits expected to mediate facilitation and competition processes. Our results shows that the stress-gradient hypothesis predicts changes in spatial co-occurrences even when two stress factors interact in a complex way. Networks of negative co-occurrences showed a hierarchical effect of dominant species under low use intensity. But positive co-occurrence network structure partially presented the characteristics expected if the facilitation was an important mechanism characterizing the community under high disturbance intensity. The partial relationship between functional traits and co-occurrences may indicate that other factors besides biotic interactions may be structuring the observed negative spatial associations in temperate Patagonian forests.
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Acknowledgements
We are thankful to Roberto Criado, Lisandro and Oscar Lanfre and Estancia El Foyel for allowing us to work at their ranches. M.M. Amoroso, C.A. Rezzano, A. Cardozo and M. Ancalao helped with site selection and sampling design. E. Villacide, M.M. Amoroso, D.F. Arpigiani, E. Bianco Bueno, M. Campo and B. Guenuleo helped with field work. J. Puntieri helped with species identification.
Funding
The study was partially financed by Agencia MINCyT (PICT 2015-1692) and Universidad Nacional de Río Negro (PI 40-B-478), Argentina.
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VC and DPV conceived the ideas and designed methodology; VC collected the data; JT, LC and DPV analyzed the data; all authors interpreted and discussed the results; VC led the writing of the manuscript. DV, JT and LC contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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Communicated by Casey P terHorst.
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442_2021_4953_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
Supplementary Figure S1. A) Map of the study area. Triangles represents the ranches (CR, FY, LN), circles represent the towns in the area. Dark gray shows the area occupied by mixed evergreen forest. Light gray represents the area occupy by other forest types. B) Representation of sampling design within each ranch, where high and low silvopastoral use intensities are located in an increasing distance from open canopy areas. (PDF 288 KB)
442_2021_4953_MOESM2_ESM.pdf
Supplementary Figure S2. Rarefaction curves of species richness. Solid lines represents sites under high silvopastoral use intensity. Dashed lines represents sites under low silvopastoral use intensity. (PDF 64 KB)
442_2021_4953_MOESM3_ESM.pdf
Supplementary Figure S3. Dendrograms of positive co-occurrences showing modules of species under high silvopastoral use intensity. Sciophytes herbs and grasses are represented in green, heliophytes herbs and grasses are represented in orange, trees and shrubs are represented in black. (PDF 538 KB)
442_2021_4953_MOESM4_ESM.pdf
Supplementary Figure S4. Dendrograms of positive co-occurrences showing modules of species under low silvopastoral use intensity. Sciophytes herbs and grasses are represented in green, heliophytes herbs and grasses are represented in orange, trees and shrubs are represented in black. (PDF 515 KB)
442_2021_4953_MOESM5_ESM.pdf
Supplementary Figure S5. Network graphics of positive (gray lines) and negative (black lines) co-occurrences showing the identity of nodes under high silvopastoral use intensity. Different shapes represents different life forms: stars are trees, triangles are shrubs, squares are herbs, circles are grasses. Sciophytes herbs and grasses are represented in green, heliophytes herbs and grasses are represented in orange. (PDF 1607 KB)
442_2021_4953_MOESM6_ESM.pdf
Supplementary Figure S6. Network graphics of positive (gray lines) and negative (black lines) co-occurrences showing the identity of nodes under low silvopastoral use intensity. Different shapes represents different life forms: stars are trees, triangles are shrubs, squares are herbs, circles are grasses. Sciophytes herbs and grasses are represented in green, heliophytes herbs and grasses are represented in orange, trees and shrubs are represented in black. (PDF 1734 KB)
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Chillo, V., Vázquez, D.P., Tavella, J. et al. Plant–plant co-occurrences under a complex land-use gradient in a temperate forest. Oecologia 196, 815–824 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04953-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04953-4