Final answer:
Neighboring plant species generally inhibit the target species at lower elevations and facilitate them at higher elevations, highlighting the complex nature of interspecific competition and ecological interactions under different climate conditions.
Step-by-step explanation:
An international group of scientists studying the relative neighbor effect (RNE) found that neighboring plant species generally inhibit the target species at low-elevation sites and facilitate the target species at high-elevation sites. This concept, RNE, is central in understanding interspecific competition and relationships between two species that depend on the same limiting resources in their ecosystem. Research suggests that plant demographic processes like seed bank persistence, seedling survival, growth rate, and reproductive output are influenced by climate change, which can affect the relationship between alien invasive and native plant species.
Climate factors such as temperature and CO₂ concentrations play a significant role in determining whether certain species will thrive. For example, plant species that are pest-resistant might benefit from warm temperatures, leading to potential changes in population dynamics, such as species A increasing in population while species B remains the same. This is because of the overlapping needs for food and space, which highlights the complexity of ecological interactions and the necessity for more research to understand and predict the outcomes of these interactions under changing climate regimes.