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Dryad

Generalist plants are more competitive and more functionally similar to each other than specialist plants: insights from network analyses

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Mar 06, 2021 version files 390.83 MB

Abstract

Aim: Ecological specialization is a property of species associated with the variety of contexts they occupy. Identifying the mechanisms influencing specialization is critical to understand species coexistence and biodiversity patterns. However, the functional attributes leading to specialization are still unknown. Similarly, there is contrasting evidence between the level of specialization and local abundance of species. We ask whether plant specialist and generalist species (i) are associated with distinct functional profiles, using core plant functional traits and strategies, (ii) show comparable functional variation, and how (iii) they perform at local scale.

Location: France, Countrywide scale.

Taxon: Herbaceous plants.

Results: We identified five major modules in the bipartite network, related to different environmental conditions and composed of species displaying different functional attributes. Species that were more specialist were less competitive, had smaller stature, higher stress-tolerance and stronger resource conservation, while generalist species were taller. Generalists were also more similar among themselves than specialists. In addition, specialist species had higher local abundances and occurred in communities with plants of similar height.

Main conclusions: We found distinctive functional signatures of specialist and generalist species in grassland communities across diverse environments at regional and community scales. Network metrics can benefit community ecology to test classical macro-ecological hypotheses by identifying distinct ecological unit at large scale and quantifying the links developed by species.