Open access
Date
2022Type
- Journal Article
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. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000547520Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Nature CommunicationsVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
NatureOrganisational unit
09666 - Alexander, Jake (ehemalig) / Alexander, Jake (former)
Funding
678841 - Novel`interactions and species’ responses to climate change (EC)
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