Priority effects are interactively regulated by top‐down and bottom‐up forces: evidence from wood decomposer communities

Both top‐down (grazing) and bottom‐up (resource availability) forces can determine the strength of priority effects, or the effects of species arrival history on the structure and function of ecological communities, but their combined influences remain unresolved. To test for such influences, we ass...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology letters 2017-08, Vol.20 (8), p.1054-1063
Main Authors: Leopold, Devin R., Wilkie, J. Paula, Dickie, Ian A., Allen, Robert B., Buchanan, Peter K., Fukami, Tadashi, Klironomos, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Arthropods
Assembly
Assembly history
Availability
Biota
Communities
Community structure
Composition effects
Decomposition
Ecological effects
Fungi
fungivore grazing
Grazing
historical contingency
Nitrogen
priority effects
Resource availability
saprotrophic fungi
Species composition
Strength
Structure-function relationships
Wood
wood decomposition
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Both top‐down (grazing) and bottom‐up (resource availability) forces can determine the strength of priority effects, or the effects of species arrival history on the structure and function of ecological communities, but their combined influences remain unresolved. To test for such influences, we assembled experimental communities of wood‐decomposing fungi using a factorial manipulation of fungivore (Folsomia candida) presence, nitrogen availability, and fungal assembly history. We found interactive effects of all three factors on fungal species composition and wood decomposition 1 year after the fungi were introduced. The strength of priority effects on community structure was affected primarily by nitrogen availability, whereas the strength of priority effects on decomposition rate was interactively regulated by nitrogen and fungivores. These results demonstrate that top‐down and bottom‐up forces jointly determine how strongly assembly history affects community structure and function.
ISSN:1461-023X
1461-0248
DOI:10.1111/ele.12803