Chacón-Labella, JuliaCruz, Marcelino De LaSánchez Pescador, DavidEscudero, Adrián2024-01-152024-01-152016Chacón-Labella J, de la Cruz M, Pescador DS & Escudero A. 2016. Individual species affect plant traits structure in their surroundings: evidence of functional mechanisms of assembly. Oecologia. 180: 975-987.0029-854910.1007/s00442-016-3547-zhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/92999This study was partially supported by projects CGL2009-13190-C03-02 (ISLAS ESPACIO), CGL2012-38427 (MOUNTAINS) and REMEDINAL2 (P2009/AMB-1783). J.C.L. was supported by a FPI Grant linked to project CGL-2009-13190 (ISLAS), which was awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. We thank Carlos Díaz for his valuable assistance in field and laboratory work, and Marcos Méndez for his valuable comments and suggestions regarding Fig. 1. We also thank Alex Fajardo, Eric Marcon and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments on a previous version.Evaluating community assembly through the use of functional traits is a promising tool for testing predictions arising from Niche and Coexistence theories. Although interactions among neighboring species and their inter-specific differences are known drivers of coexistence with a strong spatial signal, assessing the role of individual species on the functional structure of the community at different spatial scales remains a challenge. Here, we ask whether individual species exert a measurable effect on the spatial organization of different functional traits in local assemblages. We first propose and compute two functions that describe different aspects of functional trait organization around individual species at multiple scales: individual weighted mean area relationship and individual functional diversity area relationship. Secondly, we develop a conceptual model on the relationship and simultaneous variation of these two metrics, providing five alternative scenarios in response to the ability of some target species to modify its neighbor environment and the possible assembly mechanisms involved. Our results show that some species influence the spatial structure of specific functional traits, but their effects were always restricted to the finest spatial scales. In the basis of our conceptual model, the observed patterns point to two main mechanisms driving the functional structure of the community at the fine scale, “biotic” filtering meditated by individual species and resource partitioning driven by indirect facilitation rather than by competitive mechanisms.engjournal article1432-1939https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-016-3547-zrestricted access615Community assemblyCoexistenceFunctional traitsSpecies–area relationshipPoint pattern analysisBotánica (Farmacia)Botánica (Biología)Ecología (Biología)2417 Biología Vegetal (Botánica)2417.13 Ecología Vegetal