Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2024
Publisher
Wiley
Source Publication
Ecology Letters
Source ISSN
1461-023X
Original Item ID
DOI: 10.1111/ele.14449
Abstract
When plants die, neighbours escape competition. Living conspecifics could disproportionately benefit because they are freed from negative intraspecific processes; however, if the negative effects of past conspecific neighbours persist, other species might be advantaged, and diversity might be maintained through legacy effects. We examined legacy effects in a mapped forest by modelling the survival of 37,212 trees of 23 species using four neighbourhood properties: living conspecific, living heterospecific, legacy conspecific (dead conspecifics) and legacy heterospecific densities. Legacy conspecific effects proved nearly four times stronger than living conspecific effects; changes in annual survival associated with legacy conspecific density were 1.5% greater than living conspecific effects. Over 90% of species were negatively impacted by legacy conspecific density, compared to 47% by living conspecific density. Our results emphasize that legacies of trees alter community dynamics, revealing that prior research may have underestimated the strength of density dependent interactions by not considering legacy effects.
Recommended Citation
Magee, Lukas J.; LaManna, Joseph A.; Wolf, Amy T.; Howe, Robert W.; Lu, Yuanming; Valle, Denis; Smith, Daniel J. B.; Bagchi, Robert; Bauman, David; and Johnson, Daniel J., "The Unexpected Influence of Legacy Conspecific Density Dependence" (2024). Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications. 989.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/bio_fac/989
Comments
Accepted version. Ecology Letters, Vol. 27, No. 6 (June 2024). DOI. © 2024 Wiley. Used with permission.