Suchergebnisse

10 páginas.-- 4 figuras.-- 1 tablas.-- 50 referencias.-- Additional Supporting Information may be found online inthe supporting information tab for this article https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12954 ; Theory argues that both soil conditions and aboveground trophic interactions have equivalent potential to limit or promote plant diversity. However, it remains unexplored how they jointly modify the niche differences stabilising species coexistence and the average fitness differences driving competitive dominance. We conducted a field study in Mediterranean annual grasslands to parameterise population models of six competing plant species. Spatially explicit floral visitor assemblages and soil salinity variation were characterised for each species. Both floral visitors and soil salinity modified species population dynamics via direct changes in seed production and indirect changes in competitive responses. Although the magnitude and sign of these changes were species‐specific, floral visitors promoted coexistence at neighbourhood scales, while soil salinity did so over larger scales by changing the superior competitors' identity. Our results show how below and aboveground interactions maintain diversity in heterogeneous landscapes through their opposing effects on the determinants of competitive outcomes. ; Fnancial support provided by the European Union Horizon2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 661118-BioFUNC. IB and OG acknowledge also financial support provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Explora Program (CGL2014-61590-EXP, LINCX). ; Peer reviewed