Ever since the concept of the "struggle for life" became the heart of Darwin's theory of evolution, biologists have studied the relevance of interactions for the natural history and evolution of organisms. Although positive interactions among plants have traditionally received little attention, there is now a growing body of evidence showing the ef

Ever since the concept of the "struggle for life" became the heart of Darwin's theory of evolution, biologists have studied the relevance of interactions for the natural history and evolution of organisms. Although positive interactions among plants have traditionally received little attention, there is now a growing body of evidence showing the ef

This book marshals ecological literature from the last century on facilitation to make the case against the widely accepted individualistic notion of community organization. It examines the idea that positive interactions are more prevalent in physically stressful conditions. Coverage also includes species specificity in facilitative interactions, indirect facilitative interactions, and potential evolutionary aspects of positive interactions.

The Fungal Community: Its Organization and Role in the Ecosystem, Third Edition addresses many of the questions related to the observations, characterizations, and functional attributes of fungal assemblages and their interaction with the environment and other organisms. This edition promotes awareness of the functional methods of classification over taxonomic methods, and approaches the concept of fungal communities from an ecological perspective, rather than from a fungicentric view. It has expanded to examine issues of global and local biodiversity, the problems associated with exotic species, and the debate concerning diversity and function. The third edition also focuses on current ecological discussions - diversity and function, scaling issues, disturbance, and invasive species - from a fungal perspective. In order to address these concepts, the book examines the appropriate techniques to identify fungi, calculate their abundance, determine their associations among themselves and other organisms, and measure their individual and community function. This book explains attempts to scale these measures from the microscopic cell level through local, landscape, and ecosystem levels. The totality of the ideas, methods, and results presented by the contributing authors points to the future direction of mycology.

The secretory activity of plants is a manifestation of the fundamental property of all living organisms: the ability to exchange substances and energy with the environment. This book summarizes today’s knowledge of all such secretory activities of higher plants. It equally considers the cellular aspects, intratissular and external secretion, gas excretion and the excretion of substances under extreme conditions as well as the biological effects of plant excreta. The first edition of the book was published in Russian in Moscow in 1989 (Nauka Publishing House), then the English larger variant – in Heidelberg-Berlin 1993 (Springer-Verlag).

The last 25 years have seen significant advances in our understanding of the mycorrhizal fungi that colonize most of the world’s plants, and the mycorrhizal networks that form and extend into the soil beyond plant roots. In addition to a thorough review of recent research on mycorrhizal networks, this book provides readers with alternative perspectives. The book is organized into three sections: Network Structure, Nutrient Dynamics, and the Mutualism-Parasitism Continuum. Chapter 1 addresses the specificity of ectomycorrhizal symbionts and its role in plant communities, and provides an updated list of terms and definitions. Chapter 2 explores interactions between symbionts in mycorrhizal fungi networks, as well as interactions between fungal individuals. The second section of the book begins with the examination in Chapter 3 of extramatrical mycelium (mycelia beyond the root tips) in ectomycorrhizal fungi, focused on carbon and nitrogen. Chapter 4 reviews the influence of mycorrhizal networks on outcomes of plant competition in arbuscular mycorrhizal plant communities. Chapter 5 discusses nutrient movement between plants through networks with a focus on the magnitude, fate and importance of mycorrhiza-derived nutrients in ectomycorrhizal plants. Section 3 opens with a review of research on the role of ectomycorrhizal networks on seedling establishment in a primary successional habitat, in Chapter 6. The focus of Chapter 7 is on facilitation and antagonism in arbuscular mycorrhizal networks. Chapter 8 explores the unique networking dynamic of Alnus, which differs from most ectomycorrhizal plant hosts in forming isolated networks with little direct connections to networks of other host species in a forest. Chapter 9 argues that most experiments have not adequately tested the role of mycorrhizal networks on plant community dynamics, and suggests more tests to rule out alternative hypotheses to carbon movement between plants, especially those that include experimental manipulations of the mycorrhizal networks. Plant ecologists have accumulated a rich body of knowledge regarding nutrient acquisition by plants. The editor proposes that research indicating that mycorrhizal fungi compete for nutrients, which are then delivered to multiple hosts through mycorrhizal networks, represents an important new paradigm for plant ecologists.

Competitiveness describes a key ability important for plants to grow and survive abiotic and biotic stresses. Under optimal, but particularly under non-optimal conditions, plants compete for resources including nutrients, light, water, space, pollinators and other. Competition occurs above- and belowground. In resource-poor habitats, competition is generally considered to be more pronounced than in resource-rich habitats. Although competition occurs between different players within an ecosystem such as between plants and soil microorganisms, our topic focusses on plant-plant interactions and includes inter-specific competition between different species of similar and different life forms and intra-specific competition. Strategies for securing resources via spatial or temporal separation and different resource needs generally reduce competition. Increasingly important is the effect of invasive plants and subsequent decline in biodiversity and ecosystem function. Current knowledge and future climate predictions suggest that in some situations competition will be intensified with occurrence of increased abiotic (e.g. water and nutrient limitations) and biotic stresses (e.g. mass outbreak of insects), but competition might also decrease in situations where plant productivity and survival declines (e.g. habitats with degraded soils). Changing interactions, climate change and biological invasions place new challenges on ecosystems. Understanding processes and mechanisms that underlie the interactions between plants and environmental factors will aid predictions and intervention. There is much need to develop strategies to secure ecosystem services via primary productivity and to prevent the continued loss of biodiversity. This Research Topic provides an up-to-date account of knowledge on plant-plant interactions with a focus on identifying the mechanisms underpinning competitive ability. The Research Topic aims to showcase knowledge that links ecological relevance with physiological processes to better understanding plant and ecosystem function.