Seasonal shifts in competition and facilitation in subalpine plant communities of the central Caucasus

391 7 1448 1 4267 document 1448 Kikvidze et al 2006 JVS.pdf application/pdf 0bda70b57f68e8dfcb3382fde1df3a6a MD5 492398 2014-01-22 08:17:31 http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/391/1/Kikvidze%20et%20al%202006%20JVS.pdf 391 1 1 application/pdf text en public

Kikvidze et al 2006 JVS.pdf

1461 2 4293 document 1461 lightbox.jpg image/png 7b2a94a6ccd4e63619df5d55fcb63830 MD5 50280 2014-01-22 08:28:35 http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/391/2/lightbox.jpg 391 2 2 image/png other Thumbnails conversion from text to thumbnail_lightbox ge public

lightbox.jpg

preview.jpg

medium.jpg

small.jpg

http://eprints.org/relation/isVersionOf http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/id/document/1448 http://eprints.org/relation/isVolatileVersionOf http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/id/document/1448 http://eprints.org/relation/issmallThumbnailVersionOf http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/id/document/1448 archive 137 disk0/00/00/03/91 2014-01-22 14:35:36 2014-01-22 14:35:36 2014-01-22 14:35:36 article show Kikvidze Zaal zaal.kikvidze@iliauni.edu.ge Khetsuriani Liana kikodze.david@gol.ge Kikodze David kikodze.david@gol.ge Callaway Ray ray.callaway@mso.umt.edu Seasonal shifts in competition and facilitation in subalpine plant communities of the central Caucasus pub QEC ins18 public Question: Temporal and spatial shifts in competitive and facilitative interactions among plants have important implications for species coexistence and community diversity. Many studies have focused on inter-seasonal variation in these interactions, but very few have examined short-term intra-seasonal shifts between competition and facilitation. In the central Caucasus Mountains the subalpine climate changes considerably over the season, with a relatively benign (humid and cooler) first part followed by a much more stressful (drier and warmer) second part. We ask: do plant interactions shift from competitive to facilitative during the growing season as environmental conditions change from mesic to dry? Location: The central Caucasus Mountains, Georgia. Methods: We experimentally investigated shifts in the balance of positive and negative interactions in plant communities over the course of a single growing season by conducting sequential removal experiments on two co-dominant species. Results: We found that during the wet and cool first half of the growing season, target plants without neighbours accumulated significantly more biomass than individuals with neighbours, indicating competition. However, in the drier second half of the growing season competitive interactions were shifted to facilitation as individuals without neighbours accumulated significantly less biomass. Conclusions: In general, these results support the view that competitive and facilitative effects exist in dynamic tension in plant communities with facilitation intensifying as abiotic stress increases, also within a growing season. 2006-02 published Journal of Vegetation Science 17 1 International Association for Vegetation Science 77-82 TRUE 1654-1103 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1654-1103