COMPETITION AND FACILITATION_ A SYNTHETIC APPROACH TO INTERACTIONS IN PLANT COMMUNITIES.pdf

1958 SPECIAL FEATURE Ecology Vol. 78, No. 7 1958 Ecology, 78(7), 1997, pp. 1958–1965 q 1997 by the Ecological Society of America COMPETITION AND FACILITATION: A SYNTHETIC APPROACH TO INTERACTIONS IN PLANT COMMUNITIES RAGAN M. CALLAWAY 1 AND LAWRENCE R. WALKER 2 1 Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 59812 USA 2 Department of Biological Science, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154 USA Abstract. Interactions among organisms take place within a complex milieu of abiotic and biotic processes, but we generally study them as solitary phenomena. Complex com- binations of negative and positive interactions have been identified in a number of plant communities. The importance of these two processes in structuring plant communities can best be understood by comparing them along gradients of abiotic stress, consumer pressure, and among different life stages, sizes, and densities of the interacting species. Here, we discuss the roles of life stage, physiology, indirect interactions, and the physical environment on the balance of competition and facilitation in plant communities. Key words: community; competition; facilitation; indirect interactions; interactions; life stage; plant community; positive interactions. INTRODUCTION Our understanding of how interactions among plants affect community structure is largely based on studies in which specific mechanisms have been isolated and analyzed. By this approach, ecologists have shown that resource competition (Connell 1983, Schoener 1983), allelopathy (Rice 1984, Williamson 1990), and facili- tation (Hunter and Aarssen 1988, Callaway 1995) have important effects on community organization. But fa- cilitative and competitive mechanisms do not act in isolation from each other in nature, and by co-occurring within the same community, and even between the same individuals, they may produce complex and vari- able effects. Complex combinations of negative and positive in- teractio