Positive interactions expand habitat use and the realized niches of sympatric species.

Abstract

Niche theory, the oldest, most established community assembly model, predicts that in sympatry, the realized niche will contract due to negative interspecific interactions, but fails to recognize the effects of positive interactions on community assembly. The stress gradient hypothesis predicts that positive interactions expand realized niches in stressful habitats. We tested the predictions of the stress gradient hypothesis in a cobble beach model system across both physical and biological stress gradients. We transplanted seven common littoral species within, adjacent to, and below Spartina alterniflora cordgrass stands in control, cage control, predator exclusion cage, shade, and shaded predator exclusion cage treatments to test the hypothesis that cordgrass expands intertidal organism habitats. On cobble beaches, cordgrass ameliorates physical and predation stresses, expanding the distribution and realized niches of species to habitats in which they cannot live without facilitation, suggesting that niche theory and species distribution models should be amended to accommodate the role of positive interactions in community assembly.