Survey of spatial associations of California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum) and California sagebrush (Artemisia californica) in coastal sage scrub

While models of species coexistence largely focus on how competition
defines biological communities, over recent decades, a number of studies
show positive plant-plant species interactions (facilitation) can also
promote stable coexistence. The long-lived, co-dominant shrubs California
buckwheat (E. fasciculatum) and California sagebrush (A. californica)
share a well-documented positive association at the habitat level in their
native California coastal sage scrub ecosystem, but mechanisms underlying
their interactions remain unclear at finer spatial scales. Here, a
hypothesis that E. fasciculatum acidifies CSS’s alkaline soils and
facilitates A. californica through amelioration of alkalinity stress is
tested in a greenhouse experiment and association tests in the field.
Greenhouse results demonstrate facilitation at early growth stages. In
late growth stages, water competition is known to determine the shrubs’
interactions with each other, but here, field observations of the shrubs
in late growth stages show positive associations between A. californica
and E. fasciculatum that have a positive linear relationship to increasing
soil pH. These results highlight the importance of understanding
lifecycle-long interactions among species in evaluating facilitation’s
impacts on community structure.