Facilitation and competition of plants are two principle ecological interactions that leave significant footprints on the spatial distribution of plant species in arid and semi- arid ecosystems which can be revealed through point pattern analysis (Alvarez et al., 2011). Facilitative interactions of plants are commonly observed in the environments with high levels of stress such as arid ecosystems, while competitive interactions between plants frequently happen in fertile ecosystems with gentle environmental conditions. Spatial pattern of plants in an ecosystem may be influenced by facilitation, seed dispersal, competition or environmental heterogeneity (Wiegand and Moloney, 2014). Investigation of these complicated ecological interactions that can be performed by spatial pattern analysis of plants has an important role in understanding the structure of these ecosystems (Lopez et al., 2010 Navarro-Cerrillo et al., 2013). Arid and semi- arid ecosystems seem to be very simple biotic communities, while there are complicated ecological interactions between woody plants with each other and with their environment.
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