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Coexistence and niche differentiation at large spatial scale in a West-European softwater plant community

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Abstract

There is growing evidence that species are able to coexist in communities through niche separation, and that consistent community structuring can take place at the biogeographical scale, as the same biotic interactions can determine species’ fate at large scales. In this study, we document niche differentiation at a larger scale within a specific plant community of softwater lakes in Western Europe. Five species were selected for their relative frequency and wide geographical distribution within the dataset that we collected. Their niches were modelled both from presence–absence data and from ordinal abundance data, using mixed regression techniques (generalized linear mixed models and proportional odds mixed models, respectively). The modelled realized niches differed among the species on the West-European scale, although strict separation was not shown and geographical coverage is not complete. Plant strategy characterization of the species supported the assumption that functional traits underpin the niche differentiation among the species through fitness trade-offs. Mechanistic experimental research at a range of spatial scales is needed to test the importance of different community structuring mechanisms at the biogeographical scale, such as biotic interactions and environmental filtering.

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Abbreviations

GLMM:

Generalized linear mixed model

POMM:

Proportional odds mixed model

VIF:

Variance inflation factor

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to the many scientists, colleagues and friends who helped in finding appropriate sampling locations. We especially mention (in alphabetical order) C. Aguiar, G.H.P. Arts, F. Bioret, D. Boeye, A.M. Darwell, G. De Blust, J. Dirkx, I. Edgar & family, L. Gora, J. Jansen, R.A. Jones, J.A. Molina, F. Pinet, K. Rombouts, K. Urban, J. van Groenendael, W. Van Landuyt and L. van Tweel-Groot. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. We further thank the owners and nature managers that gave access to the sampled softwater lakes. We thank J. Eygensteyn, R. Steeno and J. Bernaerts for their advice when doing the chemical analyses. The first author did part of this work as Ph.D. fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Department of Biology, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Floris Vanderhaeghe, Sofie Ruysschaert & Maurice Hoffmann

  2. Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Kliniekstraat 25, 1070, Brussels, Belgium

    Floris Vanderhaeghe & Maurice Hoffmann

  3. Department of Aquatic Ecology & Environmental Biology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Huygens Building, Radboud University Nijmegen, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Leon J. L. van den Berg, Jan G. M. Roelofs & Alfons J. P. Smolders

  4. Unie van Bosgroepen, Postbus 8187, 6710 AD, Ede, The Netherlands

    Leon J. L. van den Berg

  5. B-WARE Research Centre, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Alfons J. P. Smolders

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  1. Floris Vanderhaeghe
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  2. Sofie Ruysschaert
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  3. Leon J. L. van den Berg
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  4. Jan G. M. Roelofs
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  5. Alfons J. P. Smolders
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  6. Maurice Hoffmann
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Correspondence to Floris Vanderhaeghe.

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Communicated by Anne Bonis.

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Vanderhaeghe, F., Ruysschaert, S., van den Berg, L.J.L. et al. Coexistence and niche differentiation at large spatial scale in a West-European softwater plant community. Plant Ecol 217, 369–382 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-016-0579-8

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