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Facilitation can increase the phylogenetic diversity of plant communities
Article first published online: 20 AUG 2007
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01100.x
Additional Information
How to Cite
Valiente-Banuet, A. and Verdú, M. (2007), Facilitation can increase the phylogenetic diversity of plant communities. Ecology Letters, 10: 1029–1036. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01100.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 20 AUG 2007
- Article first published online: 20 AUG 2007
- Editor, Tadashi Fukami Manuscript received 6 June 2007 First decision made 2 July 2007 Second decision made 9 July 2007 Manuscript accepted 25 July 2007
Keywords:
- Community assembly rules;
- facilitation;
- phylogenetic community structure;
- phylogenetic diversity;
- regeneration niche conservatism;
- sustenance of global biodiversity;
- Tehuacán–Cuicatlán Valley
Abstract
With the advent of molecular phylogenies the assessment of community assembly processes has become a central topic in community ecology. These processes have focused almost exclusively on habitat filtering and competitive exclusion. Recent evidence, however, indicates that facilitation has been important in preserving biodiversity over evolutionary time, with recent lineages conserving the regeneration niches of older, distant lineages. Here we test whether, if facilitation among distant-related species has preserved the regeneration niche of plant lineages, this has increased the phylogenetic diversity of communities. By analyzing a large worldwide database of species, we showed that the regeneration niches were strongly conserved across evolutionary history. Likewise, a phylogenetic supertree of all species of three communities driven by facilitation showed that nurse species facilitated distantly related species and increased phylogenetic diversity.