Facilitative Interactions Research Articles

Педагогічна фасилітація в контексті професійної підготовки майбутніх учителів іноземної мови

The article considers the phenomenon of pedagogical facilitation in the context of professional training of future foreign language teachers. Analysis of research has shown that the term “pedagogical facilitation” comes from the English word facilitate and means “easy, convenient”. Based on this, a facilitator is considered to be a person who helps to make the process of communication with other people simpler and easier. Despite the existing research on the terms “facilitation” and “pedagogical facilitation”, these terms need additional research in the context of professional training of future foreign language teachers due to the fact that in today's world learning foreign languages is one of the most important places in education. It was determined that a communicative approach that is leading in the study and teaching of a foreign language and requires the future professional to have facilitation skills. It was determined that effective facilitative pedagogical interaction involves the presence of the following stages in the work of teachers, including foreign language teachers: approval; adoption; trust. The article analyzes the experience of domestic and foreign scientists who defined the concepts of “social facilitation”, “psychological facilitation”, “pedagogical facilitation”.

Сутність міжособистісної творчої взаємодії на заняттях з диригентсько-хорової підготовки майбутніх учителів музичного мистецтва

The rapid social changes taking place in modern society, forming new principles of human activity. They are driven by processes of social integration and an increase in the dynamism of change, which causes diminished opportunities for sustainable development and the dominance of the situation of uncertainty. This requires educational institutions, including higher education, to train competent professionals who are able to interact effectively with the surrounding world. When education is focused on the principles of interpersonal interaction, education is manifested not only in the transfer of cultural experience, but in its transformation into inner, reflective consciousness, which makes the transition to a new state identity. From an ontological standpoint, education is a process of interaction of meanings in the world of culture, which results in changes in the world and in man. The interpersonal interaction in the context of art education, in particular on a creative basis, enriches the process of music education of students in art and pedagogical institutions of higher education with a special meaningful attitude and transformative content. The artistic and pedagogical interaction in the process of conductor and choral training helps to expand the possibilities of prospective teachers of music art to acquire the necessary meaning in the art-educational field through co-existence with works of music art, teacher and accompanist. The emotional form of meaning is the product of the transformative life of the personality of future specialist, which is developing dynamically The communicating during the process of conductor and choral training helps to develop the image of the «Ideal Self», which is formed on the basis of the «Real Self» and contains the «Self» of Others. The analysis of philosophical, psychological, art and pedagogical works is basis of concludes that interaction is a process of direct or indirect influence of objects (subjects) on each other, which causes their mutual conditionality and connection. The interpersonal creative interaction of prospective teachers of music art in the process of conductor and choral training is a complex and integral system of formation and functioning of the community «teacher – accompanist – prospective teacher of music art». It develops in conductor and choral pedagogical reality on the basis of mutual artistic and creative actions on realization of professional and specialist knowledge, skills, skills and qualities. The process of interpersonal creative interaction is characterized by the acceptance of a future specialist of a new role through the definition of the goals of personal artistic and creative development. This process accompanied by an understanding of «own place» in the system of interaction and individual values, as well as the state of satisfaction with the realization of personal performing potentials in the process of conductor and choral training. The formation of the interpersonal creative interaction will be facilitated by the use of certain pedagogical conditions: actualization of value and semantic aspects of interpersonal creative interaction of prospective teachers of music art in the process of conductor and choral training; use of synergistic potential of conducting a choral work; as well as pedagogical principles: dialogue of conductor and performance creativity, facilitative artistic-pedagogical interaction.

Pedagogical conditions of the future teachers’ training for the facilitation interaction with school students

Pedagogical conditions of the future teachers’ training for the facilitation interaction with school students

Research of the problem of facilitation interaction of teacher with school students in foreign theory and practice

Research of the problem of facilitation interaction of teacher with school students in foreign theory and practice

PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF FACILITATIVE INTERACTION IN THE PROCESS OF ORGANIZING DIALOGUES AT THE LESSONS AT SECONDARY SCHOOL

Facilitative interaction is characterized by specific psychological, integrative and linguistic features. It was shown that from the psychological point of view dialogization is the process of facilitative speech interaction, which involves the exchange of replicas that do not reach the scope of monologue statements. The term “dialogue” is understood as the process of dialogue, and its result-text, but the text will not always be dialogically in the content.
 The author of the article said that the dialogue (from “dialogues”, diagonal, logos) was a conversation between two or more people. Expressions are short, often they are fragmentary replicas. We showed the psychological features of dialogical communication.
 Dialogue as a product of coordinated verbal speech activity of two (three or more) interlocutors, is a coherent text that has all the main characteristics of the unambiguous unity. The parameters of the oral dialogue can be included: referring to one or another sphere of oral communication; the nature of the subject (one topic, a system of themes, several different themes); a number of creators of the text (dialogue, trilogy, poly-dialogue); functional style of speech (spoken, officially or business, etc.); degree of readiness of the subjects of speech act (presence of work-pieces, thoughts and facts, degree of mastering the topic); linguistic characteristics (normative language, composition of the dictionary, intonational design); situationality (the degree of support of speaking on infant communication channels in the process of their speech contact and the reflection of this particular communication in the text); depth and detail of the communicative development of the topic (or topics) that are discussed during the speech contact.
 In the article we proposed the psychological features of facilitative interaction. The following psychological aspects influence the content and the nature of facilitative interaction: 1) the process of perception of the interlocutor’s speech and orientation in the situation; 2) the processes of formation of the content of the statement; 3) the processes of linguistic design of thoughts and perception (plus decoding) of replica of partner in communication.
 Observations on dialogues in real conditions show that any comprehension of the statement becomes the result of direct contact between people, creating the word “organizing”, which form a single temporary communication system.
 The initial statement is largely conditioned by the person of the interlocutor (as a component of the situation of communication), his/her attitude to the interlocutor, the competence in solving the problems discussed, the language partnership of the partners, the nature of their acquaintance. The personality of the interlocutor affects the initiator of the dialogue, contributes to its modeling in the psycho-physiological sense, tune in to a certain emotional system, which gives rise to the “launch” of the content-intentional level. Beginning the dialogue, the first participant (S.1) evaluates the communicative possibilities of the partner, is guided in the environment and on this basis creates his speech generating program, activates his speech intentions and the topic. The second interlocutor (S.2), who perceived the speech, had analyzed it and replies in response, taking into account the personality of the initiator of the dialogue and the environment, his own intentions and motives.

Shrub influences on seedling performance when restoring the slow‐growing conifer Pilgerodendron uviferum in southern bog forests

Forest restoration is most efficient if it can take advantage of facilitative interactions between established vegetation and planted trees. However, positive and negative interactions have been identified in a number of plant communities. After centuries of anthropogenic fires, forest recovery has been extremely slow in southern bog forests previously dominated by the slow‐growing and vulnerable conifer Pilgerodendron uviferum on Chiloé Island, Chile. Today, the landscape is dominated by secondary shrublands with scattered patches of Sphagnum moss and limited natural tree regeneration. We hypothesized that the retention of secondary shrubs facilitates the early performance of P. uviferum restoration plantings by providing better microsite conditions. To test this hypothesis, we compared the response of seedlings planted on sites prepared at two levels of intervention: after shrubs had been removed or where shrubs were retained. Shrub retention showed a nurse‐plant effect on P. uviferum seedlings 4 years after planting, which resulted in reduced physiological stress (measured as Fv/Fm) for seedlings, as well as reduced browsing. Consequently, the seedlings growing in areas with shrub retention had larger height increment and higher vitality than those in areas where shrubs had been removed. Thus, the more open micro‐site conditions created by shrub removal resulted in generally poorer seedling performance, although seedling mortality—which was low overall (approximately 2–4%)—showed no significant difference between the two levels of intervention. These findings have direct implications for the restoration of slow‐growing conifers that can tolerate extreme wet conditions in highly degraded forests.

Optimizing coastal restoration with the stress gradient hypothesis.

Restoration efforts have been escalating worldwide in response to widespread habitat degradation. However, coastal restoration attempts notoriously vary in their ability to establish resilient, high-functioning ecosystems. Conventional restoration attempts disperse transplants in competition-minimizing arrays, yet recent studies suggest that clumping transplants to maximize facilitative interactions may improve restoration success. Here, we modify the stress gradient hypothesis to generate predictions about where each restoration design will perform best across environmental stress gradients. We then test this conceptual model with field experiments manipulating transplant density and configuration across dune elevations and latitudes. In hurricane-damaged Georgia (USA) dunes, grass transplanted in competition-minimizing (low-density, dispersed) arrays exhibited the highest growth, resilience to disturbance and dune formation in low-stress conditions. In contrast, transplants survived best in facilitation-maximizing (high-density, clumped) arrays in high-stress conditions, but these benefits did not translate to higher transplant growth or resilience. In a parallel experiment in Massachusetts where dune grasses experience frequent saltwater inundation, fewer transplants survived, suggesting that there are thresholds above which intraspecific facilitation cannot overcome local stressors. These results suggest that ecological theory can be used to guide restoration strategies based on local stress regimes, maximizing potential restoration success and return-on-investment of future efforts.

"Argumentative Discourse as a Psychological Factor of Organizing Facilitative Interaction at the Lessons at a Secondary School"

У статті обґрунтовано значення аргументативного дискурсу з точки зору когнітивної психології. Було показано, що аргументативний дискурс – це комплекс комунікативних засобів, який включає, крім тексту, екстралінгвістичні чинники (пізнання світу, думки, настанови, цілі партнера спілкування), які необхідні для розуміння тексту. У дослідженні поняття «аргументативний дискурс» було висвітлено з позицій когнітивної психології. Виокремлено три етапи поведінки людей: ситуацію, дискурс і аргументацію першого. Доведено, що аргументативний дискурс – це психологічна реалізація закодованого відповідного складника одержувачем певної інформації. Він складається з трьох компонентів: сюжету, діалектних засобів (зорієнтованих на географічні, часові та соціальні чинники) й діалогового типу реалізації аргументативного дискурсу (парадигма дискурсу, реєстри дискурсу, дискурсивний модус і фази реалізації дискурсу, загальне проектування фраз, структурування, презентація контенту, висновки, оцінки, особливості взаємодії). Останнє свідчить про те, що аргументативний дискурс слід розуміти як складний мовленнєвий акт. У статті також визначено три підходи щодо концепції «аргументативного дискурсу». Показано, що перший підхід, який орієнтується на парадигму когнітивної психології, визначає дискурс як два чи більше речень, щільно пов’язаних за змістом. Другий підхід забезпечує функціональне визначення аргументативного дискурсу як «будь-якого іншого використання сенсу». Цей підхід визначає зумовленість аналізу функцій дискурсу шляхом вивчення функцій фраз у широкому соціокультурному контексті. Третій підхід актуалізує значення аргументативного дискурсу як висловлювання і робить акцент на взаємодії форми та функцій аргументації. У цьому випадку аргументативний дискурс розуміється не як примітивний набір ізольованих одиниць мовленнєвої структури, «більший за речення», а як цілісний набір функціонально організованих, контекстуальних одиниць використання мови, які мають своє унікальне значення. В емпіричному дослідженні використано психодіагностичний метод змістово-смислового аналізу (ЗСA) дискурсивного мислення І. Семенова з метою вивчення рівнів аргументативного дискурсу підлітків. Було показано, що метод ЗСA застосовувався для реконструкції й аналізу мисленнєвих процесів у ситуаціях розв’язання невеликих творчих завдань. Останні авторка статті розглядала як психологічний чинник ефективної фасилітативної взаємодії. Було доведено, що процес розв’язання творчих задач підлітки розцінюють як проблемно-конфліктну ситуацію. Останнє визначалося неоднозначністю умов проблеми, що провокувало використання стереотипних засобів розв’язання, які не призвели до бажаного досягнення результату. Водночас, у підлітків виникали непорозуміння у процесі змістового перетворення умов цієї проблеми, коли інтелектуальних засобів особистості було зовсім недостатньо для її розв’язання. Зазначено, що когнітивний дисонанс характеризує особистісний аспект фасилітативної взаємодії і проявляє себе як особливий емоційний стан людини, що виникає у випадку зіткнення останньої з проблемою, яку неможливо розв’язати за допомогою добре відомого учневі засобу-стереотипу. Також доведено, що переживання підлітком неадекватності в проблемній ситуації значно блокує його інтелектуальну діяльність, тому позитивного результату досягти неможливо. Наголошено, що, з іншого боку, проблему слід розглядати як умову здійснення активної пізнавальної діяльності, а конфлікт – як наявність суперечностей. Останнє підкреслює функціональний аспект аргументативного дискурсу. Автором статті запропоновано рівні сформованості аргументованого дискурсу підлітків, розкрито їх зміст.

Trophic shifts in a native predator following the introduction of a top predator in a tropical lake

Some of the most dramatic and well-studied impacts of introduced predators involve their ecological effects on native prey communities. However, how native predators respond to introduced predators has received less attention. Here, we examined the potential impacts of an introduced predatory fish (Cichla monoculus, the peacock bass) on the diet and trophic ecology of a native predator (Hoplias microlepis) in Lake Gatun, Panama. We used stomach content analysis and stable isotope analysis to quantify the dietary niche of both species in sympatry, and of the native predator in the presence vs. absence of the peacock bass. We found that in the presence of the peacock bass, H. microlepis had a more diverse diet and a wider (five-fold) isotopic niche, relative to where it occurred alone. Specifically, H. microlepis, which were predominantly piscivorous in the absence of peacock bass, broadened their diet in the invaded Lake Gatun to include invertebrates and scavenged fish, the latter comprising 26% of its diet. Scavenged fish consisted of C. monoculus and Oreochromis niloticus (Nile tilapia) remains, both heavily harvested, non-native species in Lake Gatun, whose scraps are often thrown back into the lake by fishers. We suspect that these human-mediated food subsidies may lead to indirect facilitative interactions between introduced and native species in this system.

Improving professional development relationships that support teacher learning

PurposeCurrent top-down literacy reform mandates have reenergized attention to professional development (PD) outcomes. Still, questions remain about why English teachers struggle to apply their learning. Refocusing attention on understanding the complex yet critical relationship between professional development (PD) facilitators and teachers offers one explanation.Design/methodology/approachUsing a telling case from an interactional ethnography, this paper illustrates how through their language-in-use teachers and facilitators can productively resolve conflicts that, if left unaddressed, can prevent teachers from acting on their professional learning.FindingsA set of discursive moves – flagging, naming, soliciting and processing – provide a toolkit for surfacing and successfully resolving conflict in PD interactions.Research limitations/implicationsThese moves offer a way of prioritizing the importance of teacher–facilitator relationships in future research aimed at addressing the longstanding conundrum of how best to support English teachers’ ongoing professional learning.Practical implicationsTeaching facilitators and teachers how to collaboratively address inevitable conflicts offers a needed intervention in supporting both teacher and facilitator learning.Originality/valuePrevious research has affirmed that facilitators, like teachers, need support for navigating the complexity of professional learning interactions. This paper offers a language for uncovering why teacher–facilitator interactions can be so challenging for teachers and facilitators as well as ways of responding productively in-the-moment. It contributes to a more capacious understanding of how these relationships shape diverse English teacher learning.

Patterns of Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) Establishment in Wiregrass (Aristida beyrichiana) Understories

Ecosystem community structure and function is shaped in part by intra- and inter-specific interactions among plants. Facilitative interactions, wherein one plant benefits another's fitness, can strongly influence plant community dynamics. We investigated the potential of an endemic, perennial bunchgrass, wiregrass (Aristida beyrichiana), to function as a nurse plant for longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) seedlings in fire-maintained pine savannas of the southeastern U.S.A. We documented significantly more pine seedlings growing close to established wiregrass bunchgrasses in a site burned one year prior to sampling. Pine seedlings growing close to wiregrass were also significantly taller than those growing further away. This positive spatial association between wiregrass and pine seedlings suggests that wiregrass facilitates early longleaf pine establishment in flatwoods environments, at least within the first year after fire.

Food and habitat provisions jointly determine competitive and facilitative interactions among distantly related herbivores

Abstract Interactions between distantly related herbivores exert powerful influences on ecosystems, but most studies to date have only considered unidirectional effects. Few have simultaneously examined the mutual effects that vertebrate herbivores and insect herbivores have on one another. We conducted a set of manipulative experiments to evaluate the potential competition and facilitation between two pairs of distantly related herbivore taxa: an insect caterpillar (Gynaephora alpherakii) and two large vertebrate herbivores, yak (Bos grunniens) and Tibetan sheep (Ovis aries tibetica). We found that these large herbivores consistently increased the density of caterpillars likely by improving the habitat for caterpillars. The caterpillars, in turn, decreased yak but increased Tibetan sheep foraging time and intake bites by differently changing available food resources of the two large herbivores. Diet preferences of herbivores modified the habitat and food resources, thereby causing a diet‐mediated competition between yak and caterpillars, and facilitation between sheep and caterpillars. The vertebrate herbivores non‐feeding upon Lamiophlomis rotata and Gentiana straminea, the caterpillars preferred habitat, increased densities of the two plant species, thus favouring the caterpillars. In turn, the caterpillar preference for Kobresia pygmaea significantly reduced food resources for yak, while promoting food resources (multiple forbs) for sheep. Synthesis. Our study indicates that two different mechanisms (the changes in habitat and food availability) induced by herbivore foraging jointly determine competitive and facilitative interactions between distantly related herbivore species. We also suggest that examining the bi‐directional effects between herbivores offers a better understanding of competition and facilitation in terrestrial animal communities.

A Meta-analysis of Plant Interaction Networks Reveals Competitive Hierarchies as well as Facilitation and Intransitivity.

The extent to which competitive interactions and niche differentiation structure communities has been highly controversial. To quantify evidence for key features of plant community structure, I recharacterized published data from interaction experiments as networks of competitive and facilitative interactions. I measured the network structure of 31 woody and herbaceous communities, including the intensity, distribution, and diversity of interactions at the species-pair and community levels to determine the generality of competition, winner-loser relationships, and unequal interaction allocation. I developed novel methodology using meta-analysis to incorporate interaction uncertainty into estimates of structural metrics among independent networks. Plant communities were competitive, but intraspecific interactions were sometimes more intense than interspecific interactions. On the whole, interactions were imbalanced and communities were transitive. However, facilitation, balanced interactions, and intransitivity were common in individual communities. Synthesizing network metrics using meta-analysis is an original approach with which to generalize community structure in a systematic way.

Eye-opening facilitator behaviours: an Interaction Analysis of facilitator behaviours that advance debriefings

IntroductionAnalyses of simulation performance taking place during postsimulation debriefings have been described as iterating through phases of unawareness of problems, identifying problems, explaining the problems and suggesting alternative strategies or...

Should fertilizer recommendations be adapted to parkland agroforestry systems? Case studies from Ethiopia and Rwanda

AimsThis study aimed to disentangle tree-crop-fertilizer interactions in agroforestry systems, which has been suggested as an entry point for sustainable intensification of smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Although tree-crop systems generate multiple economic and ecological benefits, tree-crop competition commonly occurs. We hypothesized that mineral fertilizers affect facilitative and competitive interactions differently in tree-crop systems.MethodsTree-crop-fertilizer interactions were explored for wheat growing under Faidherbia albida, and maize growing under Acacia tortilis and Grevillea robusta through omission trials of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in open fields and fields under tree canopy, using a split plot design. The experiments were conducted in Ethiopia and Rwanda, replicated four times, and over two seasons.ResultsOur results demonstrated that the presence of F. albida significantly improved N and P use efficiencies, leading to significantly higher (P < 0.001) grain yields in wheat. This tree species contributed around 64 kg ha−1 yr.−1 of mineral N. The P use efficiency of wheat under F. albida was double that of open field wheat. By contrast, G. robusta and A. tortilis trees lowered nutrient use efficiencies in maize, leading to significantly less maize grain yields compared with open fields receiving the same fertilization. Probabilities of critically low crop yields and crop failure were significantly greater for maize growing under the canopy of these species.ConclusionsOur results showed that recommended fertilizer rates led to facilitative interaction only with F. albida, highlighting that fertilizer recommendations need to be adapted to agroforestry systems.

Benefits for nurse and facilitated plants emerge when interactions are considered along the entire life-span

The structure of plant communities is often influenced by facilitative interactions where ‘facilitated’ plants benefit from growing associated with ‘nurse’ plants. Facilitation has been mostly studied from the facilitated plant’s perspective, and bidirectional effects between nurse and facilitated plants have received less attention. We hypothesized that reciprocal benefits in plant-plant interactions may emerge when interactions are considered along the life-span of the plants involved. Over one spring, we selected five species with similar life-form and growth strategy, and using a full factorial design, we compared different fitness components along the plants’ life-span (seedling establishment, juvenile growth and reproductive investment in adult plants). We compared: a) plants growing in solitary stands and associated with other plants in vegetation patches; and b) plants that originally functioned as nurse plant (the largest plant of the vegetation patch) and as facilitated (not the largest plant of the vegetation patch). At an early developmental stage, facilitated plants growing in vegetation patches displayed higher seedling establishment and juvenile growth compared to solitary conspecific plants. At a later developmental stage, nurse plants in vegetation patches experienced higher reproductive investment (measured as flower production relative to plant size) compared to solitary plants, while the originally facilitated plants showed similar reproductive investment compared to their solitary pair of similar size. Facilitation is likely a complex interaction in which reciprocal benefits for both facilitated and nurse plants can be detected when interactions are considered along the plants’ life-span. Our results suggest that mutual benefits in plant-plant interactions could be important to sustain diversity in plant communities, but they appeared overlooked and deserve further attention.

Plant facilitation through mycorrhizal symbiosis is stronger between distantly related plant species.

The tendency of closely related plant species to share natural enemies has been suggested to limit their co-occurrence and performance, but we lack a deep understanding on how mutualistic interactions such as the mycorrhizal symbiosis affect plant-plant interactions depending on the phylogenetic relatedness of the interacting plants. We hypothesise that the effect of the mycorrhizal symbiosis on plant-plant facilitative interactions depends on the phylogenetic distance between the nurse and facilitated plants. A recently published meta-analysis compiled the strength of plant facilitative interactions in the presence or absence (or reduced abundance) of mycorrhizal fungi. We use phylogenetically informed Bayesian linear models to test whether the effect size is influenced by the phylogenetic distance between the plant species involved in each plant facilitative interaction. Conspecific facilitative interactions are more strongly enhanced by mycorrhizal fungi than interactions between closely related species. In heterospecific interactions, the effect of the mycorrhizal symbiosis on plant facilitation increases with the phylogenetic distance between the nurse and facilitated plant species. Our result showing that the effect of mycorrhizal symbiosis on the facilitation interactions between plants depends on their phylogenetic relatedness provides new mechanisms to understand how facilitation is assembling ecological communities.

La facilitación entre plantas como herramienta de restauración de diversidad y funciones ecosistémicas

Navarro-Cano, J.A., Goberna, M., Verdu, M. 2019. Plant facilitation as a tool to restore diversity and ecosystem functions. Ecosistemas 28(2): 20-31. Doi.: 10.7818/ECOS.1747 Traditional restoration programmes have focused on conditioning plantation sites and reintroducing plant species. Nowadays, however, ecological restoration is conceived as the complete recovery of biodiversity and ecosystem performance. Here, we review the use of plant-plant facilitation as a tool to restore both diversity and ecosystem functions. Facilitation is an ecological interaction between a nurse species, which is able to colonize a stressful habitat and modify the microenvironment beneath its canopy, and the beneficiary species that are not so stress-tolerant and grow under the nurse. Differences in the establishment niche between the nurse and its beneficiaries imply that species sharing facilitative interactions have different functional traits, and can therefore coexist. This process increases, at the landscape scale, all taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic plant diversity. Plant diversity patterns further permeate into those of consumers and decomposers. Thus, restoration based on plant-plant facilitation allows the recovery of multiple facets of diversity at several trophic levels and, eventually, the restoration of essential ecosystem functions (fertility, productivity, or decomposition). We illustrate these cascading effects in the text by means of observational surveys in natural ecosystems governed by facilitation, as well as manipulative experiments and restoration activities.

Forest community assembly is driven by different strata‐dependent mechanisms along an elevational gradient

AbstractAimThe mechanisms driving forest community assembly along elevational gradients remain elusive. The distinct strata in heterogeneous forest are subject to differing assembly mechanisms. This study aims to evaluate how different ecological mechanisms driving forest community assembly across strata and spatial scales, and to identify how these assemblages respond to different abiotic or biotic variables along an elevational gradient.LocationYulong Mountain within Hengduan Mountains, Southwest China.TaxonSeed plants.MethodsWe sampled plant species along a 1,200 m elevational gradient across forest strata (trees, shrubs and herbs) at different spatial scales (neighbourhood and community). We integrated phylogenetic and functional diversity to disentangle the roles of ecological mechanisms in structuring community assembly. We also determined the relative effects of climatic, soil and biotic variables and their interactions on these community assemblages.ResultsThe phylogenetic and functional diversity of trees were lower at the extremes of the elevational gradient, where they were constrained by water availability or temperature. While communities with higher species diversity exhibited an overdispersed structure at mid‐elevations. For shrubs, overdispersion was exhibited at high elevations despite low species richness, which could be consistent with facilitative interactions or competition exclusion. However, most communities of herbs appear to have a markedly random structure, despite some incongruence between phylogenetic divergence and functional convergence, as well as influences from overstorey trees and local light conditions. The relative effects of abiotic variables on community structure were larger at the community scale than at the neighbourhood scale.Main conclusionsOur study emphasises the importance of considering phylogenies and traits in understanding the strata‐ and scale‐dependent mechanisms of forest community assembly. Collectively, results indicate that contrasting assembly mechanisms interact across different strata along elevational gradients to shape diverse forest communities.

From apparent competition to facilitation: Impacts of consumer niche construction on the coexistence and stability of consumer‐resource communities

Abstract In addition to their direct trophic effects, some consumers have a positive indirect effect on their resource, due to niche construction. A predator can facilitate its prey resource acquisition, through prey transport, or through modifications of nutrient cycling. Alternatively, a predator may defend its prey against other predators, or actively manage it, as in agriculture, which is found in numerous taxa such as humans, ants, beetles, fishes and microbes. Here, we investigate the ecological consequences of considering such positive effects in a simple two‐resource–one‐consumer module, in which the consumer has a positive effect on one of the resources. We consider several scenarios, in which the positive effect on the resource is either not costly, that is resulting from a by‐product of the consumer phenotype such as nutrient cycling, or costly. The cost either decreases the exploitation of the cultivated resource or the opportunity to forage the alternative resource. We investigate how the intensity of niche construction impacts species coexistence, the distribution of biomass among the three species and the stability of the community. We show that by modifying the trophic interactions in the module, niche construction alters the apparent competition between the resources, thereby impacting their coexistence. When niche construction has little or no cost to the consumer, it leads to higher consumer and cultivated resource densities, while decreasing the alternative resource density. Alternatively, when niche construction has higher costs, the alternative resource can increase in density, niche construction thereby leading to the emergence of facilitative interactions among resource species. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.