Variation in moisture duration as a driver of coexistence by the storage effect in desert annual plants

Holt, Galen; Chesson, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.tpb.2013.10.007

Cited by 39 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…While the storage effect is the most commonly imputed fluctuation‐dependent mechanism of coexistence, we find that it can also play a destabilising role. This result mirrors theoretical work by Holt & Chesson (), who found that strong asymmetry in species germination resulted in a negative storage effect for some species, destabilising coexistence. Paralleling our results, in this case coexistence only occurred from other mechanisms, such as average fitness differences, which overcame the destabilising role of the storage effect and the variance‐interaction term.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Rainfall variability maintains grass‐forb species coexistence

et al. 2019

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Environmental variability can structure species coexistence by enhancing niche partitioning. Modern coexistence theory highlights two fluctuation‐dependent temporal coexistence mechanisms —the storage effect and relative nonlinearity – but empirical tests are rare. Here, we experimentally test if environmental fluctuations enhance coexistence in a California annual grassland. We manipulate rainfall timing and relative densities of the grass Avena barbata and forb Erodium botrys, parameterise a demographic model, and partition coexistence mechanisms. Rainfall variability was integral to grass–forb coexistence. Variability enhanced growth rates of both species, and early‐season drought was essential for Erodium persistence. While theoretical developments have focused on the storage effect, it was not critical for coexistence. In comparison, relative nonlinearity strongly stabilised coexistence, where Erodium experienced disproportionately high growth under early‐season drought due to competitive release from Avena. Our results underscore the importance of environmental variability and suggest that relative nonlinearity is a critical if underappreciated coexistence mechanism.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Rainfall variability maintains grass‐forb species coexistence

et al. 2019

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“…The environment experienced by individuals in these communities routinely fluctuates because resource accessibility is dynamic in space and time. Such environmental fluctuations can facilitate competitor coexistence if functional trade-offs cause species to vary in their competitive superiority (e.g., Angert et al 2009;Holt and Chesson 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Without trade-offs, one species could conceivably maintain competitive dominance in all environments, increasing the likelihood of competitive exclusion. Nevertheless, few studies have identified the functional trade-offs that lead to these species-specific responses (but see, e.g., Angert et al 2009;Holt and Chesson 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade-Offs and Coexistence in Fluctuating Environments: Evidence for a Key Dispersal-Fecundity Trade-Off in Five Nonpollinating Fig Wasps

Duthie

Abbott

Nason

2015

The American Naturalist

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. abstract: The ecological principle of competitive exclusion states that species competing for identical resources cannot coexist, but this principle is paradoxical because ecologically similar competitors are regularly observed. Coexistence is possible under some conditions if a fluctuating environment changes the competitive dominance of species. This change in competitive dominance implies the existence of trade-offs underlying species' competitive abilities in different environments. Theory shows that fluctuating distance between resource patches can facilitate coexistence in ephemeral patch competitors, given a functional trade-off between species dispersal ability and fecundity. We find evidence supporting this trade-off in a guild of five ecologically similar nonpollinating fig wasps and subsequently predict local among-patch species densities. We also introduce a novel colonization index to estimate relative dispersal ability among ephemeral patch competitors. We suggest that a dispersal ability-fecundity trade-off and spatiotemporally fluctuating resource availability commonly co-occur to drive population dynamics and facilitate coexistence in ephemeral patch communities.

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“…Real‐world examples include annual plants having different germination rates that depend on precipitation (Angert et al. , Holt and Chesson ), phytoplankton with different growth rates depending on temperature (Eppley ), and seedling recruitment depending in part on temperature (Grubb ), each of which have been shown to produce storage effects (Chesson , Miller and Klausmeier ). Appendix presents a simple example for a model of coexistence via the storage effect.…”

Section: Interpreting the Terms Of The Partitioned Growth Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

Chesson's coexistence theory

Barabás

D’Andrea

Stump

2018

Ecological Monographs

306

528

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We give a comprehensive review of Chesson's coexistence theory, summarizing, for the first time, all its fundamental details in one single document. Our goal is for both theoretical and empirical ecologists to be able to use the theory to interpret their findings, and to get a precise sense of the limits of its applicability. To this end, we introduce an explicit handling of limiting factors, and a new way of defining the scaling factors that partition invasion growth rates into the different mechanisms contributing to coexistence. We explain terminology such as relative nonlinearity, storage effect, and growth‐density covariance, both in a formal setting and through their biological interpretation. We review the theory's applications and contributions to our current understanding of species coexistence. While the theory is very general, it is not well suited to all problems, so we carefully point out its limitations. Finally, we critique the paradigm of decomposing invasion growth rates into stabilizing and equalizing components: we argue that these concepts are useful when used judiciously, but have often been employed in an overly simplified way to justify false claims.

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Variation in moisture duration as a driver of coexistence by the storage effect in desert annual plants

Cited by 39 publications

References 50 publications

Rainfall variability maintains grass‐forb species coexistence

Rainfall variability maintains grass‐forb species coexistence

Trade-Offs and Coexistence in Fluctuating Environments: Evidence for a Key Dispersal-Fecundity Trade-Off in Five Nonpollinating Fig Wasps

Chesson's coexistence theory

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