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Although the role played by phylogeny in the assembly of plant communities remains as a priority to complete the theory of species coexistence, experimental evidence is lacking. It is still unclear to what extent phylogenetic diversity is a driver or a consequence of species assembly processes. We experimentally explored how phylogenetic diversity can drive the community level responses to drought conditions in annual plant communities. We manipulated the initial phylogenetic diversity of the assemblages and the water availability in a common garden experiment with two irrigation treatments: average natural rainfall and drought, formed with annual plant species of gypsum ecosystems of Central Spain. We recorded plant survival and the numbers of flowering and fruiting plants per species in each assemblage. GLMMs were performed for the proportion of surviving, flowering, fruiting plants per species and for total proportion of surviving species and plants per pot. In water limited conditions, high phylogenetic diversity favored species coexistence over time with higher plant survival and more flowering and fruiting plants per species and more species and plants surviving per pot. Our results agree with the existence of niche complementarity and the convergence of water economy strategies as major mechanisms for promoting species coexistence in plant assemblages in semiarid Mediterranean habitats. Our findings point to high phylogenetic diversity among neighboring plants as a plausible feature underpinning the coexistence of species, because the success of each species in terms of surviving and producing offspring in drought conditions was greater when the initial phylogenetic diversity was higher. Our study is a step forward to understand how phylogenetic relatedness is connected to the mechanisms determining the maintenance of biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have evaluated the effect of population size on plant reproductive output, but there are few studies concerning the effect of other population structure variables on plant reproduction. In this study, we went beyond population size effect and we tested the effect of some population spatial variables such as plant density, plant aggregation, population structure, and population identity on plant reproductive success and fitness in large populations (>1000 individuals) of Centaurea hyssopifolia Vahl., an endemic species of central Spain. We analysed the reproductive output (capitula, flowers, and seeds) and another two components of plant fitness (seed mass and germinability) in 350 individuals from seven populations in 2002 and 2003. All populations were similar in size but differed in other population spatial characteristics (density, plant aggregation pattern, population plant size structure). We used Morisita’s aggregation index to characterize the level of plant aggregation within populations. Population plant size structure variable determined the proportion of different sized plants in a population. We used generalized linear mixed models to model the contribution of these population spatial variables to several reproductive parameters. Our results showed that whereas the aggregation index exerted a positive control on plant seed set, plant density had a negative effect, and plant population size structure did not significantly influence any response variable. Density only exerted a negative effect on seed set. On the contrary, plant aggregation had a positive effect. Seed mass was also larger in more aggregated populations, although no differences in seed germinability were observed. We detected the effect of population attributes on reproduction in terms of seed set, but we did not detect any effect on other overall reproductive variables measured at plant level. To sum up, our results showed that if population fragments were large enough, spatial population attributes became crucial factors for plant reproductive output and fitness. These easily measurable population variables may improve the conservation management of rare plant species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disentangling the processes that drive plant community assembly is critical for understanding the patterns of plant diversity. We studied how different abiotic and biotic factors shape the interplay between the facets of alpine plant diversity, functional (FD), phylogenetic (PD) and taxonomic diversity (TD), in three different mountain ranges with contrasting evolutionary histories and climate conditions (Pyrenees and Mediterranean-type mountains in central Spain and Chilean Andes). We hypothesized that the causal links vary in strength and sign across regions. We used species inventories, functional trait data, and a phylogeny from 84 plant communities spread throughout three high-mountain alpine grasslands. Structural equation models were used to test our causal hypotheses on the relationships observed between the three diversity facets, and the abiotic (elevation, potential solar radiation and soil total nitrogen) and biotic factors (C-score). Despite our causal model presented a high variability in each mountain range, TD always decreased with increasing elevation (sum of direct and indirect effects). We also found some patterns suggesting that assembly processes could be climatically/biogeographically structured such as the negative relationship between FD and elevation found in Mediterranean mountains and the negative relationship between FD and TD found in both Spanish mountain ranges (independently of their different climates). A remarkable finding of this study is that ecological factors such as soil total nitrogen and elevation indirectly alter the relationships between the diversity facets. Our results suggest that diversity facets are simultaneously affected by different ecological and biogeographical/evolutionary processes, resulting in some general trends but also in parallel idiosyncratic patterns. Our findings highlight that although FD stand out by its explanatory power of community processes, TD and PD provide a complementary and necessary view that should not be disregarded in the attempt to globally explain community assembly processes., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)