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Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity
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Functional species pool framework to test for biotic effects on community assembly.

Francesco de Bello1, Jodi N Price, Tamara Münkemüller

  • 1Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Dukelská 135 37982 Trebon, Czech Republic. fradebello@ctfc.es

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Summary

A new framework compares community trait dissimilarity to the functional species pool diversity to distinguish biotic processes. This method accurately identifies niche differentiation and weaker competitor exclusion in community assembly.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Community Ecology
  • Trait-based Ecology

Background:

  • Species coexistence is influenced by functional traits, with trait diversity often compared to null models.
  • Previous methods struggle to separate abiotic and biotic processes due to ambiguous trait convergence/divergence patterns.
  • Biotic processes like competition can lead to both trait convergence and divergence, complicating interpretation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a new operational framework for differentiating biotic and abiotic drivers of community assembly.
  • To compare functional trait dissimilarity within communities (FDcomm) to that expected from the functional species pool (FDpool).
  • To re-evaluate community assembly processes by accurately identifying niche differentiation and competitor exclusion.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a framework comparing FDcomm to FDpool, where FDpool is defined by environmental and dispersal filters.
  • Applied the framework to simulated data to assess its detection accuracy for trait diversity patterns.
  • Analyzed field data from Estonian plant communities to test the framework's application to real-world ecological patterns.

Main Results:

  • The functional species pool framework more accurately detected simulated trait diversity patterns than previous methods.
  • Analysis of Estonian plant communities revealed that both niche differentiation and weaker competitor exclusion shape community assembly.
  • The framework successfully differentiated biotic processes by estimating the site-specific species pool.

Conclusions:

  • Estimating the functional species pool is crucial for distinguishing biotic processes driving community assembly.
  • The proposed framework offers a more robust approach to understanding trait-based community assembly.
  • This method can be applied to functional and phylogenetic diversity, advancing ecological theory and application.