Global change re‐structures alpine plant communities through interacting abiotic and biotic effects

Global change is altering patterns of community assembly, with net outcomes dependent on species' responses to the abiotic environment, both directly and mediated through biotic interactions. Here, we assess alpine plant community responses in a 15‐year factorial nitrogen addition, warming and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology letters 2022-08, Vol.25 (8), p.1813-1826
Main Authors: Collins, Courtney G., Elmendorf, Sarah C., Smith, Jane G., Shoemaker, Lauren, Szojka, Megan, Swift, Margaret, Suding, Katharine N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
alpine
biotic interactions
competition
Density
density‐dependent
density‐independent
dominance
Dominant species
Environmental gradient
global change
Hierarchies
joint attribute modelling
Nitrogen
Plant communities
Plant populations
species hierarchies
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Summary:Global change is altering patterns of community assembly, with net outcomes dependent on species' responses to the abiotic environment, both directly and mediated through biotic interactions. Here, we assess alpine plant community responses in a 15‐year factorial nitrogen addition, warming and snow manipulation experiment. We used a dynamic competition model to estimate the density‐dependent and ‐independent processes underlying changes in species‐group abundances over time. Density‐dependent shifts in competitive interactions drove long‐term changes in abundance of species‐groups under global change while counteracting environmental drivers limited the growth response of the dominant species through density‐independent mechanisms. Furthermore, competitive interactions shifted with the environment, primarily with nitrogen and drove non‐linear abundance responses across environmental gradients. Our results highlight that global change can either reshuffle species hierarchies or further favour already‐dominant species; predicting which outcome will occur requires incorporating both density‐dependent and ‐independent mechanisms and how they interact across multiple global change factors. Here, we assess alpine plant community responses in a 15‐year factorial nitrogen addition, warming and snow manipulation experiment. Density‐dependent shifts in competitive interactions drove long‐term changes in abundance of species‐groups under global change while counteracting environmental drivers limited the growth response of the dominant species through density‐independent mechanisms. Our results highlight that global change can either reshuffle species hierarchies or further favor already dominant species; predicting which outcome will occur requires incorporating both density‐dependent and independent mechanisms and how they interact across multiple global change factors.
ISSN:1461-023X
1461-0248
DOI:10.1111/ele.14060