Journal
NEW PHYTOLOGIST
Volume 207, Issue 4, Pages 1038-1051Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/nph.13431
Keywords
coexistence; competition; facilitation; fire; hydraulic lift; savanna
Categories
Funding
- China Scholarship Council
- VPR Office of the University of Virginia
- National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center [NSF DBI-1052875]
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Div Of Biological Infrastructure [1052875] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The coexistence of woody plants and grasses in savannas is determined by a complex set of interacting factors that determine access to resources and demographic dynamics, under the control of external drivers and vegetation feedbacks with the physical environment. Existing theories explain coexistence mainly as an effect of competitive relations and/or disturbances. However, theoretical studies on the way facilitative interactions resulting from hydraulic lift affect tree-grass coexistence and the range of environmental conditions in which savannas are stable are still lacking. We investigated the role of hydraulic lift in the stability of tree-grass coexistence in savannas. To that end, we developed a new mechanistic model that accounts for both competition for soil water in the shallow soil and fire-induced disturbance. We found that hydraulic lift favors grasses, which scavenge the water lifted by woody plants. Thus, hydraulic lift expands (at the expenses of woodlands) the range of environmental conditions in which savannas are stable. These results indicate that hydraulic lift can be an important mechanism responsible for the coexistence of woody plants and grasses in savannas. Grass facilitation by trees through the process of hydraulic lift could allow savannas to persist stably in mesic regions that would otherwise exhibit a forest cover.
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