Spatial pattern analysis and competition between Acacia karroo trees in humid savannas

Prevalence of Inter-Tree Competition and Its Role in Shaping the Community Structure of a Natural Mongolian Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) Forest

“…Both plots exhibited a significant positive correlation between crown size and nearest neighbour distances (greater distances indicating less crowding), but the correlation was more significant in the higher-density plot, suggesting that inter-tree competition is more intensive in crowded plant communities. Similar significant positive correlations have been observed in other studies that found evidence of both intra-and inter-tree competition in different forests [5,6,12,15], particularly in woody plant communities in African savannas. Shackleton [12] argued that detecting the presence of competition with nearest neighbour analyses may be affected by environmental habitat factors, such as slope and the amount of rainfall.…”

“…Similarly, a number of other studies have demonstrated that competition has a significant role in tree mortality in different forests [4,17,18,30], especially in young and even-aged forests. However, other studies using similar analyses failed to detect significant evidence of competition contributing to tree mortality processes [5,15,19], and most suggested that the competitive interactions were not strong enough to result in mortality, but rather, resulted in a reduction in tree size [15]. The importance of competitive mortality processes may also vary with forest development.…”

“…Inter-tree competition is considered one of the most important ecological processes driving plant community structure [3][4][5][6][7][8]. Although a number of studies have found evidence of competition among plants [9][10][11][12][13], its importance in structuring plant spatial patterns remains controversial [5,12,[14][15][16]. Studies of spatial distribution patterns have detected the prevalence of competition among plants, and concluded that competition is a significant contributor to tree mortality [4,17,18]; however, inconsistent results have been observed in some tree species [5,15,19].…”

“…Although a number of studies have found evidence of competition among plants [9][10][11][12][13], its importance in structuring plant spatial patterns remains controversial [5,12,[14][15][16]. Studies of spatial distribution patterns have detected the prevalence of competition among plants, and concluded that competition is a significant contributor to tree mortality [4,17,18]; however, inconsistent results have been observed in some tree species [5,15,19]. When using spatial pattern analysis methods, determining the prevalence of competition in the structuring of plant communities largely depends on the intensity of inter-tree interactions [9,20] and Investigating spatial autocorrelation in tree size is a case of a marked point pattern analysis, which measures spatial patterns of attributes, such as tree species and size, attached to tree locations [38].…”

Intraspecific interactions shift from competitive to facilitative across a low to high disturbance gradient in a salt marsh

“…This technique is often used in analyses of species interactions among long-lived plants, such as trees or shrubs, in fully mapped plots (Pillay and Ward 2012;Queenborough et al 2007;Raventos et al 2010;Yu et al 2009). In our study, this technique was applied to study interactions among individuals of an annual herb species, taking advantage of reductions in required disturbances of the plant community during the experiment.…”