Nature Communications (Jun 2016)

Direct effects dominate responses to climate perturbations in grassland plant communities

  • Chengjin Chu,
  • Andrew R. Kleinhesselink,
  • Kris M. Havstad,
  • Mitchel P. McClaran,
  • Debra P. Peters,
  • Lance T. Vermeire,
  • Haiyan Wei,
  • Peter B. Adler

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11766
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Environmental change can have indirect effects on populations by altering the outcome of competitive interactions. Here, Chu et al. show that although direct effects dominate the responses of grassland species to climate perturbations, indirect effects could be greater among species with smaller niche differences.