Mutualists Stabilize the Coexistence of Congeneric Legumes
| Autor: | Maren L. Friesen, Kenneth W. Zillig, Sharon Y. Strauss, Andrew Siefert |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Plant–soil feedback Mutualism (biology) Rhizobium leguminosarum biology Ecology Niche biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Plant Root Nodulation Competitive exclusion Rhizobia 03 medical and health sciences 030104 developmental biology Species Specificity Trifolium Symbiosis Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics |
| Zdroj: | The American naturalist. 193(2) |
| ISSN: | 1537-5323 |
| Popis: | Coexistence requires that stabilizing niche differences, which cause species to limit themselves more than others, outweigh relative fitness differences, which cause competitive exclusion. Interactions with shared mutualists, which can differentially affect host fitness and change in magnitude with host frequency, can satisfy these conditions for coexistence, yet empirical tests of mutualist effects on relative fitness and stabilizing niche differences are largely lacking within the framework of coexistence theory. Here, we show that N-fixing rhizobial mutualists mediate coexistence in four naturally co-occurring congeneric legume (Trifolium) species. Using experimental greenhouse communities, we quantified relative fitness and stabilizing niche differences for each species in the presence of rhizobia originating from conspecific or congeneric hosts. Rhizobia stabilized coexistence by increasing the self-limitation of Trifolium species grown with rhizobia isolated from conspecifics, thus allowing congeners to increase when rare. Greenhouse-measured invasion growth rates predicted natural, unmanipulated coexistence dynamics of Trifolium species over 2 years at our field sites. Our results demonstrate that interactions with shared mutualists can stabilize the coexistence of closely related species. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|