Unifying facilitation and recruitment networks. (30th September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alcántara, Julio M.; Garrido, José L.; Montesinos‐Navarro, Alicia; Rey, Pedro J.; Valiente‐Banuet, Alfonso; Verdú, Miguel
• Editors: de Bello, Francesco
• Is Part Of: Journal of vegetation science. Volume 30:Number 6(2019:Nov.)
• Page Start: 1239
• Page End: 1249
• Publication Date: 2019-09-30
• Subjects: canopy–recruit interactions -- ecological networks -- facilitation networks -- nurse plants -- plant–plant interactions -- recruitment networks -- replacement dynamics -- replacement networks -- sapling bank -- strongly connected components; Plant ecology -- Periodicals; Plant communities -- Periodicals; Plant populations -- Periodicals; 581.7
• DOI: 10.1111/jvs.12795
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1100-9233

Abstract

Abstract: Ecological network studies are providing important advances about the organization, stability and dynamics of ecological systems. However, the ecological networks approach is being integrated very slowly in plant community ecology, even though the first studies on plant facilitation networks (FNs) were published more than a decade ago. The study of interaction networks between established plants and plants recruiting beneath them, which we call Recruitment Networks (RNs), can provide new insights on mechanisms driving plant community structure and dynamics. RNs basically describe which plants recruit under which others, so they can be seen as a generalisation of the classic FNs since they do not imply any particular effect (positive, negative or neutral) of the established plants on recruiting ones. RNs summarise information on the structure of sapling banks. More importantly, the information included in RNs can be incorporated into models of replacement dynamics to evaluate how different aspects of network structure, or different mechanisms of network assembly, may affect plant community stability and species coexistence. To allow an efficient development of the study of FNs and RNs, here we unify concepts, synthesise current knowledge, clarify some conceptual issues, and propose basic methodological guidelines to standardise sampling methods that could make future studies of these networks directly comparable. Abstract : We introduce recruitment networks as a unifying framework to study the interactions between established plants and plants recruiting beneath them. Methodological guidelines for sampling these networks and the type of analyses that can be done to understand the mechanisms driving plant community structure and dynamics are provided. Photographer: Alfonso Valiente‐Banuet.