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Interactions among resource partitioning, sampling effect, and facilitation on the biodiversity effect: a modeling
Pedro Flombaum1, Osvaldo E Sala, Edward B Rastetter
1Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos, Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera, Instituto Franco-Argentino sobre Estudios de Clima y sus Impactos , Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Unidad Mixta Internacional (CONICET/UBA-FCEN/UMI-CNRS), Buenos Aires, Argentina, pflombaum@cima.fcen.uba.ar.
Oecologia
|September 26, 2013
Summary
Biodiversity effects on plant production are driven by resource partitioning, facilitation, and sampling effects. Shrubs facilitated grass growth, increasing the sampling effect, while resource partitioning reduced this interaction.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Plant Ecology
- Ecosystem Function
Background:
- Biodiversity effects on net primary production are complex, involving resource partitioning, facilitation, and sampling effects.
- Experimental separation of these mechanisms and their interactions remains challenging.
- Previous studies often combined niche differentiation and facilitation, separating them from the sampling effect.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and test hypotheses regarding the interactions among resource partitioning, facilitation, and sampling effect.
- To investigate how these mechanisms influence the biodiversity effect on aboveground net primary production.
- To simulate ecological processes in a model mimicking the Patagonian steppe.
Main Methods:
- Developed a simulation model of water movement through soil and vegetation, and net primary production.
- Simulated grass and shrub monocultures and mixtures to represent varying biodiversity levels.
- Manipulated root overlap (resource partitioning) and grass water-use efficiency (WUE) to simulate facilitation gradients.
Main Results:
- Shrub presence enhanced grass WUE and increased the sampling effect, demonstrating facilitation.
- Resource partitioning (root overlap) had minimal direct effect on the sampling effect.
- An interaction was observed where facilitation's impact on the sampling effect decreased with increased resource partitioning.
- The sampling effect was amplified by functional group differences in resource use efficiency.
Conclusions:
- Facilitation and resource partitioning interact, with resource partitioning potentially dampening the positive effects of facilitation on the sampling effect.
- Functional group differences are key drivers of the sampling effect, with diminishing returns from further differentiation.
- Both grass WUE and root overlap positively influenced the overall biodiversity effect, but without synergistic interactions.
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