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Competition and coexistence in plant communities: intraspecific competition is stronger than interspecific competition
Author(s) -
Adler Peter B.,
Smull Danielle,
Beard Karen H.,
Choi Ryan T.,
Furniss Tucker,
Kulmatiski Andrew,
Meiners Joan M.,
Tredennick Andrew T.,
Veblen Kari E.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/ele.13098
Subject(s) - interspecific competition , intraspecific competition , storage effect , competition (biology) , biology , ecology , coexistence theory , facilitation , neuroscience
Theory predicts that intraspecific competition should be stronger than interspecific competition for any pair of stably coexisting species, yet previous literature reviews found little support for this pattern. We screened over 5400 publications and identified 39 studies that quantified phenomenological intraspecific and interspecific interactions in terrestrial plant communities. Of the 67% of species pairs in which both intra‐ and interspecific effects were negative (competitive), intraspecific competition was, on average, four to five‐fold stronger than interspecific competition. Of the remaining pairs, 93% featured intraspecific competition and interspecific facilitation, a situation that stabilises coexistence. The difference between intra‐ and interspecific effects tended to be larger in observational than experimental data sets, in field than greenhouse studies, and in studies that quantified population growth over the full life cycle rather than single fitness components. Our results imply that processes promoting stable coexistence at local scales are common and consequential across terrestrial plant communities.