Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 108, Issue 13, Pages 5302-5307Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1013003108
Keywords
Darwin's naturalization hypothesis; phylogenetic signal
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Funding
- Center for Population Biology, University of California (Davis, CA)
- California Agricultural Experiment Station
- American Association of University Women
- Case Western Reserve University
- National Science Foundation
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The relationship between phylogenetic distance and ecological similarity is key to understanding mechanisms of community assembly, a central goal of ecology. The field of community phylogenetics uses phylogenetic information to infer mechanisms of community assembly; we explore, the underlying relationship between phylogenetic similarity and the niche. We combined a field experiment using 32 native plant species with a molecular phylogeny and found that closely related plant species shared similar germination and early survival niches. Species also competed more with close relatives than with distant relatives in field soils; however, in potting soil this pattern reversed, and close relatives might even have more mutalistic relationships than distant relatives in these soils. Our results suggest that niche conservatism (habitat filtering) and species interactions (competition or facilitation) structure community composition, that phylogenetic relationships influence the strength of species' interactions, and that conserved aspects of plant niches include soil attributes.
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