SynthesisPloS one2019
Root and shoot competition lead to contrasting competitive outcomes under water stress: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Rapid and repeated evolution of increased competitive ability in a global invader.Nature communications · 2026Article
- From the Ground Up: Can Root Traits Help Understand Invasion Dynamics?Ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Mitigating the harmful consequences of arsenic on celosia plants via the use of GABA.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- The Role of Mycorrhizal Fungi in the Inter and Intraspecific Competition ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- An inferior competitor is a successful invader due to its stress tolerance and productivity.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- A Comparison of Different Stomatal Density Phenotypes ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Effect of redroot pigweed interference on antioxidant enzyme and light response of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) depends on cultivars and growth stages.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Towards a Trait-Based Approach to Potentiate Yield under Drought in Legume-Rich Annual Forage Mixtures.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Root morphological responses to population density vary with soil conditions and growth stages: The complexity of density effects.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Soil Water Availability Changes in Amount and Timing Favor the Growth and Competitiveness of Grass Than a Co-dominant Legume in Their Mixtures.Frontiers in plant science · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCompetition is a critical process that shapes plant communities and interacts with environmental constraints. There are surprising knowledge gaps related to mechanisms that belie competitive processes, though important to natural communities and agricultural systems: the contribution of different plant parts on competitive outcomes and the effect of environmental constraints on these outcomes.
objectiveStudies that partition competition into root-only and shoot-only interactions assess whether plant parts impose different competitive intensities using physical partitions and serve as an important way to fill knowledge gaps. Given predicted drought escalation due to climate change, we focused a systematic review-including a meta-analysis on the effects of water supply and competitive outcomes.
methodsWe searched ISI Web of Science for peer-reviewed studies and found 2042 results. From which eleven suitable studies, five of which had extractable information of 80 effect sizes on 10 species to test these effects. We used a meta-analysis to compare the log response ratios (lnRR) on biomass for responses to competition between roots, shoots, and full plants at two water levels.
resultsWater availability treatment and competition treatment (root-only, shoot-only, and full plant competition) significantly interacted to affect plant growth responses (p < 0.0001). Root-only and full plant competition are more intense in low water availability (-1.2 and -0.9 mean lnRR, respectively) conditions than shoot-only competition (-0.2 mean lnRR). However, shoot-only competition in high water availability was the most intense (- 0.78 mean lnRR) compared to root-only and full competition (-0.5 and 0.61 mean lnRR, respectively) showing the opposite pattern to low water availability. These results also show that the intensity of full competition is similar to root-only competition and that low water availability intensifies root competition while weakening shoot competition.
conclusionsThe outcome that competition is most intense between roots at low water availability emphasizes the importance of root competition and these patterns of competition may shift in a changing climate, creating further urgency for further studies to fil knowledge gaps addressing issues of drought on plant interactions and communities.
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