RT Journal Article
T1 Drought and grazing combined: Contrasting shifts in plant interactions at species pair and community level
A1 Verwijmeren, Mart
A1 Rietkerk, Max
A1 Bautista, Susana
A1 García Mayor, Ángeles Pilar
A1 Wassen, Martin
A1 Smit, Christian
AB The combined effects of drought stress and grazing pressure on shaping plant–plant interactions are still poorly understood, while this combination is common in arid ecosystems. In this study we assessed the relative effect of grazing pressure and slope aspect (drought stress) on vegetation cover and soil functioning in semi-arid Mediterranean grassland–shrublands in southeastern Spain. Moreover, we linked these two stress factors to plant co-occurrence patterns at species-pair and community levels, by performing C-score analyses. Vegetation cover and soil functioning decreased with higher grazing pressure and more south-facing (drier) slopes. At the community level, plants at south-facing slopes were negatively associated at no grazing but positively associated at low grazing pressure and randomly associated at high grazing pressure. At north-facing slopes, grazing did not result in a shift in the direction of the association. In contrast, analysis of pairwise species co-occurrence patterns showed that the dominant species Stipa tenacissima and Anthyllis cytisoides shifted from excluding each other to co-occurring with increasing grazing pressure at north-facing slopes. Our findings highlight that for improved understanding of plant interactions along stress gradients, interactions between species pairs and interactions at the community level should be assessed, as these may reveal contrasting results.
PB Elsevier
SN 0140-1963
YR 2014
FD 2014
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/97766
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/97766
LA eng
NO Verwijmeren, Mart, et al. «Drought and Grazing Combined: Contrasting Shifts in Plant Interactions at Species Pair and Community Level». Journal of Arid Environments, vol. 111, diciembre de 2014, pp. 53-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2014.08.001.
NO Netherlands Science Foundation
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO European Commission
DS Docta Complutense
RD 25 dic 2025