Facilitation network in phryganic plant communities: evidence from a Mediterranean island
2025
Constantinou, Elena | Montesinos-Navarro, Alicia | Sarris, Dimitrios | Vogiatzakis, Ioannis
Plant to plant interactions are key drivers of community structure and assembly. We investigate theeffect of facilitation on phryganic plant community structure, focusing on plant crown size, and whetherthe identified facilitative interactions related to community architecture are common in arid environments.We analysed the spatial patterns of 11 species in an arid area in Cyprus. A matrix was created toillustrate the associations between recruited and canopy species, which were found to be more positivethan expected by chance, based on the Chi-square test. The corresponding indices of nestedness andconnectance were calculated. The associations between recruited and canopy species were found to bepositive, exhibiting a high nested structure (p < 0.001) with a 26% connectance in a non-random nestedpattern. The presence of facilitative interactions was confirmed by the almost double number of recruitsunder the canopies of facilitators versus open ground. Ziziphus lotus, demonstrated the highestfacilitation capacity (ca. 1.4 times higher than expected; covering ca. 57% of the area occupied by thenurses). Thymbra capitata and Noaea mucronata followed. The high degree of regularity in the assemblyof plants within the community suggests that a facilitator’s network is fundamental for maintainingplant diversity in phryganic communities.
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