Plant antagonistic facilitation across environmental gradients: a soil-resource ecosystem engineering model

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Plant Biology
• Theoretical Ecology

Background:

• Nonreciprocal interactions, or antagonistic facilitation, challenge ecological theory.
• Ecosystem engineers modify resources, impacting community dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate conditions favoring antagonistic facilitation by ecosystem engineers.
• Model plant competition and resource dynamics belowground.

Main Methods:

• Developed a spatially explicit consumer-resource model.
• Simulated belowground competition between ecosystem engineers and exploiters.

Main Results:

• Antagonistic facilitation is optimal in stressful environments where engineer self-benefits exceed neighbor competition.
• Resource availability, not root biomass, is the key environmental driver.
• Findings align with primary succession and stress gradient hypotheses.

Conclusions:

• Root biomass is an unreliable predictor of plant interaction outcomes.
• Environmental stress and resource availability dictate the evolution of plant interactions.