Theory 48/Cooperation vs Competition/Ecology
Facilitation Turns to Competition
The claim
Facilitation between plants trades against competition across stress gradients, so the balance flips at an intermediate stress level.
01Mechanism
Stress relief dominates where stress is high; resource competition dominates where stress is low, and the crossover sets community composition.
02Prediction
Net interaction should change sign across the gradient.
03Refutation
Facilitation constant across stress would remove the crossover.