IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-30013-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competition contributes to both warm and cool range edges

Author

Listed:
  • Shengman Lyu

    (ETH Zürich)

  • Jake M. Alexander

    (ETH Zürich)

Abstract

Competition plays an important role in shaping species’ spatial distributions. However, it remains unclear where and how competition regulates species’ range limits. In a field experiment with plants originating from low and high elevations and conducted across an elevation gradient in the Swiss Alps, we find that both lowland and highland species can better persist in the presence of competition within, rather than beyond, their elevation ranges. These findings suggest that competition helps set both lower and upper elevation range limits of these species. Furthermore, the reduced ability of pairs of lowland or highland species to coexist beyond their range edges is mainly driven by diminishing niche differences; changes in both niche differences and relative fitness differences drive weakening competitive dominance of lowland over highland species with increasing elevation. These results highlight the need to account for competitive interactions and investigate underlying coexistence mechanisms to understand current and future species distributions.

Suggested Citation

  • Shengman Lyu & Jake M. Alexander, 2022. "Competition contributes to both warm and cool range edges," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-30013-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30013-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30013-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-30013-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jake M. Alexander & Jeffrey M. Diez & Jonathan M. Levine, 2015. "Novel competitors shape species’ responses to climate change," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7570), pages 515-518, September.
    2. Jonathan M. Levine & Janneke HilleRisLambers, 2009. "The importance of niches for the maintenance of species diversity," Nature, Nature, vol. 461(7261), pages 254-257, September.
    3. W. Stanley Harpole & David Tilman, 2007. "Grassland species loss resulting from reduced niche dimension," Nature, Nature, vol. 446(7137), pages 791-793, April.
    4. Sabine B. Rumpf & Karl Hülber & Johannes Wessely & Wolfgang Willner & Dietmar Moser & Andreas Gattringer & Günther Klonner & Niklaus E. Zimmermann & Stefan Dullinger, 2019. "Extinction debts and colonization credits of non-forest plants in the European Alps," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Andrew J. Davis & Linda S. Jenkinson & John H. Lawton & Bryan Shorrocks & Simon Wood, 1998. "Making mistakes when predicting shifts in species range in response to global warming," Nature, Nature, vol. 391(6669), pages 783-786, February.
    6. Jonathan M. Levine & Jordi Bascompte & Peter B. Adler & Stefano Allesina, 2017. "Beyond pairwise mechanisms of species coexistence in complex communities," Nature, Nature, vol. 546(7656), pages 56-64, June.
    7. Ignacio M. Pérez-Ramos & Luis Matías & Lorena Gómez-Aparicio & Óscar Godoy, 2019. "Functional traits and phenotypic plasticity modulate species coexistence across contrasting climatic conditions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David García-Callejas & Ignasi Bartomeus & Oscar Godoy, 2021. "The spatial configuration of biotic interactions shapes coexistence-area relationships in an annual plant community," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Zhang, Zeyu & Bearup, Daniel & Guo, Guanming & Zhang, Helin & Liao, Jinbao, 2022. "Competition modes determine ecosystem stability in rock–paper–scissors games," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 607(C).
    3. Ilaria Bernabò & Viviana Cittadino & Sandro Tripepi & Vittoria Marchianò & Sandro Piazzini & Maurizio Biondi & Mattia Iannella, 2022. "Updating Distribution, Ecology, and Hotspots for Three Amphibian Species to Set Conservation Priorities in a European Glacial Refugium," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-19, August.
    4. Sergey Bartsev & Andrey Degermendzhi, 2023. "The Evolutionary Mechanism of Formation of Biosphere Closure," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-22, July.
    5. Dongli, Duan & Chengxing, Wu & Yuchen, Zhai & Changchun, Lv & Ning, Wang, 2022. "Coexistence mechanism of alien species and local ecosystem based on network dimensionality reduction method," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    6. Bazeia, D. & Bongestab, M. & de Oliveira, B.F. & Szolnoki, A., 2021. "Effects of a pestilent species on the stability of cyclically dominant species," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    7. Wojciech Bierza & Joanna Czarnecka & Agnieszka Błońska & Agnieszka Kompała-Bąba & Agnieszka Hutniczak & Bartosz Jendrzejek & Jawdat Bakr & Andrzej M. Jagodziński & Dariusz Prostański & Gabriela Woźnia, 2023. "Plant Diversity and Species Composition in Relation to Soil Enzymatic Activity in the Novel Ecosystems of Urban–Industrial Landscapes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, April.
    8. Mohd, Mohd Hafiz, 2019. "Diversity in interaction strength promotes rich dynamical behaviours in a three-species ecological system," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 353(C), pages 243-253.
    9. Avery P. Hill & Christopher B. Field, 2021. "Forest fires and climate-induced tree range shifts in the western US," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Alicia Sanchez-Gorostiaga & Djordje Bajić & Melisa L Osborne & Juan F Poyatos & Alvaro Sanchez, 2019. "High-order interactions distort the functional landscape of microbial consortia," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(12), pages 1-34, December.
    11. Gaikwad, Jitendra & Wilson, Peter D. & Ranganathan, Shoba, 2011. "Ecological niche modeling of customary medicinal plant species used by Australian Aborigines to identify species-rich and culturally valuable areas for conservation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(18), pages 3437-3443.
    12. Feng Shi & James Evans, 2023. "Surprising combinations of research contents and contexts are related to impact and emerge with scientific outsiders from distant disciplines," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    13. Duncan D. Smith & Mark A. Adams & Amanda M. Salvi & Christopher P. Krieg & Cécile Ané & Katherine A. McCulloh & Thomas J. Givnish, 2023. "Ecophysiological adaptations shape distributions of closely related trees along a climatic moisture gradient," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    14. Mohd, Mohd Hafiz & Murray, Rua & Plank, Michael J. & Godsoe, William, 2016. "Effects of dispersal and stochasticity on the presence–absence of multiple species," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 342(C), pages 49-59.
    15. Roberto Cazzolla Gatti & Roger Koppl & Brian D. Fath & Stuart Kauffman & Wim Hordijk & Robert E. Ulanowicz, 2020. "On the emergence of ecological and economic niches," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 99-127, July.
    16. Jian-Xiong Huang & Jian Zhang & Yong Shen & Ju-yu Lian & Hong-lin Cao & Wan-hui Ye & Lin-fang Wu & Yue Bin, 2014. "Different Relationships between Temporal Phylogenetic Turnover and Phylogenetic Similarity and in Two Forests Were Detected by a New Null Model," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-7, April.
    17. Mohd, Mohd Hafiz & Park, Junpyo, 2021. "The interplay of rock-paper-scissors competition and environments mediates species coexistence and intriguing dynamics," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 153(P1).
    18. Mariana García Criado & Isla H. Myers-Smith & Anne D. Bjorkman & Signe Normand & Anne Blach-Overgaard & Haydn J. D. Thomas & Anu Eskelinen & Konsta Happonen & Juha M. Alatalo & Alba Anadon-Rosell & Is, 2023. "Plant traits poorly predict winner and loser shrub species in a warming tundra biome," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    19. Munoz, François, 2009. "Distance-based eigenvector maps (DBEM) to analyse metapopulation structure with irregular sampling," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(20), pages 2683-2689.
    20. Christine Howard & Emma-Liina Marjakangas & Alejandra Morán-Ordóñez & Pietro Milanesi & Aleksandre Abuladze & Karen Aghababyan & Vitalie Ajder & Volen Arkumarev & Dawn E. Balmer & Hans-Günther Bauer &, 2023. "Local colonisations and extinctions of European birds are poorly explained by changes in climate suitability," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-30013-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.