Evolutionary relatedness does not predict competition and co-occurrence in natural or experimental communities of green algae

Alexandrou, Markos A.; Hall, John D.; Delwiche, Charles F.; Fritschie, Keith J.; Narwani, Anita; Venail, Patrick; Bentlage, Bastian; Pankey, M. Sabrina; Oakley, Todd H.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.1745

Cited by 28 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 78 publications

(125 reference statements)

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“…In contrast, other studies have found no relationship between phylogenetic relatedness and strength of competition (Alexandrou et al 2015;Fritschie et al 2014;Venail et al 2014). These studies, however, were performed under relatively benign environments relative to our study.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 46%

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Phylogenetic relatedness, ecological strategy, and stress determine interspecific interactions within a salt marsh community

Zhang

Wang

2017

Aquat Sci

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 46%

“…However, support for the PLSH is equivocal (Alexandrou et al 2015;Cahill et al 2008;Fritschie et al 2014;Narwani et al 2013;Venail et al 2014). For example, both Cahill et al (2008) and Verdu et al (2012) performed meta-analyses on the relationships between phylogenetic distances and plant species interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic relatedness, ecological strategy, and stress determine interspecific interactions within a salt marsh community

Zhang

Wang

2017

Aquat Sci

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“…However, a consensus has not been reached on whether low or high phylogenetic relatedness could promote invasions [1, 5–10]. On the one hand competition-relatedness hypothesis, [9] suggests that the competitive exclusion of closely related species restricts invasion, for example because of overlapping resource use, as well as shared predators, herbivores, and pathogens.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Propagule pressure increase and phylogenetic diversity decrease community’s susceptibility to invasion

2017

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BackgroundInvasions pose a large threat to native species, but the question of why some species are more invasive, and some communities more prone to invasions than others, is far from solved. Using 10 different three-species bacterial communities, we tested experimentally if the phylogenetic relationships between an invader and a resident community and the propagule pressure affect invasion probability.ResultsWe found that greater diversity in phylogenetic distances between the members of resident community and the invader lowered invasion success, and higher propagule pressure increased invasion success whereas phylogenetic distance had no clear effect. In the later stages of invasion, phylogenetic diversity had no effect on invasion success but community identity played a stronger role.ConclusionsTaken together, our results emphasize that invasion success does not depend only on propagule pressure, but also on the properties of the community members. Our results thus indicate that invasion is a process where both invader and residing community characters act in concert.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12898-017-0126-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…In order to assess whether PD determines the level of competition experienced by members of a multi-species community, we ran a laboratory mesocosm experiment in which we varied the PD represented by eight common species of green algae, and then assessed the competitive response of each species to additions or deletions of the other taxa grown in polyculture. We used a data-rich molecular phylogeny of 59 green algae species (Alexandrou et al 2015) to determine the relatedness of algal species comprising each community. We measured phylogenetic distance from a focal species to the resident community as the average PD between a focal species and each other species present in the community.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic distance does not predict competition in green algal communities

2015

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Biologists have held the tenet that closely related species compete more strongly with each other than with distant relatives since 1859, when Darwin observed that close relatives seldom co-occur in nature and suggested it was because they competitively exclude one another. The expectation that close relatives experience greater competition than distant relatives has become known as the ''competitionrelatedness hypothesis (CRH).'' The CRH is predicated on the assumption that closely related species are more likely to have similar resource requirements than distant relatives, and thus, compete more strongly for limited resources. While this assumption has been popular because it is intuitive, it has also been subject to relatively little experimentation. Over the past decade, a growing number of CRH studies have arrived at divergent conclusions showing that the strength of competitive interactions can increase, decrease, or be independent of evolutionary relatedness. Most of these studies have focused on measuring competition among species pairs as opposed to competition experienced by species when part of whole communities. We tested whether the CRH holds in communities where individual species experience interactions with a variety of other taxa, which we call the 'resident community'. We performed a laboratory mesocosm study using communities of eight species of freshwater green algae whose evolutionary relationships were quantified using a recently developed multi-gene molecular phylogeny of 59 North American green algae. We grew species alone and in various combinations in polyculture so that we could measure each species' sensitivity to competition (reduction in intrinsic growth rate when grown alone vs. with a resident community), relative yield, and competitive release (proportional change in biomass of a species when grown in a resident community missing one competitor vs. in a community with all possible competitors). While each of these metrics consistently revealed a prevalence of competitive interactions among the algal species, none were predicted by the relatedness of a species to a resident community. This suggests that the results of prior pairwise studies refuting the competition-relatedness hypothesis for green algae can be extended to larger resident communities in which more complex ecological interactions possibly occur.

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Evolutionary relatedness does not predict competition and co-occurrence in natural or experimental communities of green algae

Cited by 28 publications

References 78 publications

Phylogenetic relatedness, ecological strategy, and stress determine interspecific interactions within a salt marsh community

Phylogenetic relatedness, ecological strategy, and stress determine interspecific interactions within a salt marsh community

Propagule pressure increase and phylogenetic diversity decrease community’s susceptibility to invasion

Phylogenetic distance does not predict competition in green algal communities

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