Interactions Between Plants, Plant Communities and the Abiotic and Biotic Environment: With Contributions from C. F. Dormann and H. M. Schaefer

In this chapter, the interactions between plants, plant communities and the abiotic and biotic environment are described. First, we discuss how plants with their specific traits influence their environment, including their effects on climatic conditions, on the weathering of bedrock and on topography, as well as on the development and characteristics of soils. The second section deals with interactions among plants, including positive, neutral and negative ones, which can result in symbiosis, facilitation, commensalism, parasitism or competition. A special focus lies on competition and its consequences for coexistence among different plant species and for plant community structure and diversity. This section ends by highlighting the relevance of plant–plant interactions for practical applications, such as the use of indicator values and ecograms, which are based on the ecological niche concept. The third section describes interactions between plants and animals. We first classify plant–animal interactions by looking at the evolutionary effects of such interactions on both groups and present the evolutionary history of biological interactions and the concepts of coevolution and adaptation. The following sections elaborate in detail on specific plant–animal interactions, namely herbivory, carnivory, pollination, seed dispersal and mycorrhiza. The chapter ends with a description of the effects of abiotic environmental conditions on these biological interactions.