Stage-mediated priority effects and season lengths shape long-term competition dynamics

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Community Ecology
• Population Dynamics

Background:

• Species arrival order influences community interactions and species persistence, a phenomenon known as priority effect.
• The dependence of priority effects on the length of the growing season and the number of generations within it remains poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the number of generations per season modulates priority effects in ecological communities.
• To determine the relationship between seasonal stage structure, species interactions, and community outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Development and analysis of a seasonal stage-structured mathematical model.
• Simulation of species interactions under varying generational structures and seasonal lengths.

Main Results:

• Stage differences between interacting species can generate priority effects by altering stabilizing and equalizing coexistence mechanisms.
• Priority effects are most pronounced in systems with few generations per season and diminish with multiple overlapping generations.
• The strength of priority effects is inversely related to the number of generations within a growing season.

Conclusions:

• A novel link is established between the number of generations per season and the impact of priority effects.
• Phenological shifts due to climate change may have varied consequences on community composition, contingent on organismal life histories and generational turnover.