TY - JOUR T1 - Community specificity: life and afterlife effects of genes. JF - Trends in plant science Y1 - 2012 A1 - Whitham,Thomas G A1 - Gehring,Catherine A A1 - Lamit,Louis J A1 - Wojtowicz,Todd A1 - Evans,Luke M A1 - Keith,Arthur R A1 - Smith,David Solance KW - Animals KW - Arthropods KW - Biological Evolution KW - Ecosystem KW - Genotype KW - Herbivory KW - Host-Parasite Interactions KW - Models, Biological KW - Plants KW - Species Specificity AB -

Community-level genetic specificity results when individual genotypes or populations of the same species support different communities. Our review of the literature shows that genetic specificity exhibits both life and afterlife effects; it is a widespread phenomenon occurring in diverse taxonomic groups, aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems, and species-poor to species-rich systems. Such specificity affects species interactions, evolution, ecosystem processes and leads to community feedbacks on the performance of the individuals expressing the traits. Thus, genetic specificity by communities appears to be fundamentally important, suggesting that specificity is a major driver of the biodiversity and stability of the world's ecosystems.

VL - 17 SN - 1360-1385 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&DbFrom=pubmed&Cmd=Link&LinkName=pubmed_pubmed&LinkReadableName=Related%20Articles&IdsFromResult=22322002&ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSumhttp://www.ncbi. IS - 5 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Phenotypic variation in nurse traits and community feedbacks define an alpine community. JF - Ecology letters Y1 - 2011 A1 - Michalet,Richard A1 - Xiao,Sa A1 - Touzard,Blaise A1 - David S Smith A1 - Cavieres,Lohengrin A A1 - Callaway,Ragan M A1 - Whitham,Thomas G KW - arizona KW - Ecosystem KW - Genotype KW - Geum KW - Models, Biological KW - Phenotype KW - Plant Leaves KW - Plant Roots KW - Plant Stems KW - Population Dynamics KW - Selection, Genetic AB -

Much is known about facilitation, but virtually nothing about the underlying genetic and evolutionary consequences of this important interaction. We assessed the potential of phenotypic differences in facilitative effects of a foundation species to determine the composition of an Alpine community in Arizona. Two phenotypes of Geum rossii occur along a gradient of disturbance, with 'tight' competitive cushions in stable conditions and 'loose' facilitative cushions in disturbed conditions. A common-garden study suggested that field-based traits may have a genetic basis. Field experiments showed that the reproductive fitness of G. rossii cushions decreased with increasing facilitation. Finally, using a dual-lattice model we showed that including the cost and benefit of facilitation may contribute to the co-occurrence of genotypes with contrasting facilitative effects. Our results indicate that changes in community composition due to phenotypic differences in facilitative effects of a foundation species may in turn affect selective pressures on the foundation species.

VL - 14 SN - 1461-023X UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&DbFrom=pubmed&Cmd=Link&LinkName=pubmed_pubmed&LinkReadableName=Related%20Articles&IdsFromResult=21366815&ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSumhttp://www.ncbi. IS - 5 ER -