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Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

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A practical guide to characterising ecological coexistence.

Adam T Clark¹, Lauren G Shoemaker², Jean-François Arnoldi³

¹Department of Biology, University of Graz, Holteigasse 6, Graz, 8010, Austria.

Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society

|October 11, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Ecological coexistence, a fundamental ecology concept, is challenging to define due to multiple research branches. This study overviews common concepts and metrics for detecting and characterizing coexistence dynamics in ecological communities.

Keywords:

asymptotic return rate ecological coexistence empirically tractable invasion growth rate mutual invasibility parameter sensitivity structural stability time to extinction

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Last Updated: Jan 15, 2026

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Theoretical Ecology
Community Ecology

Background:

Coexistence is a core ecological concept but lacks a unified definition.
Diverse research branches with distinct methodologies hinder a cohesive understanding.
Existing literature presents multiple, often isolated, approaches to studying coexistence.

Purpose of the Study:

To provide a comprehensive overview of current concepts and metrics for ecological coexistence.
To clarify the relationships between different theoretical frameworks and practical measurements.
To guide empirical researchers in selecting appropriate theoretical tools for coexistence studies.

Main Methods:

Categorization of community dynamics into four behavioral classes: feasible steady states, local attractors, global attractors, and null transient states.
Explanation of how these classes relate to common coexistence metrics.
Discussion of the scope and limitations of each class and metric, particularly for empirical applications.

Main Results:

Four classes of community dynamics (steady state, local attractor, global attractor, null transient) are defined.
Common metrics like parameter sensitivity, return rates, invasion growth rates, and time to extinction are linked to these dynamics.
The study highlights the applicability and constraints of these tools in real-world ecological systems.

Conclusions:

A framework is presented to match empirical questions with theoretical coexistence tools.
Opportunities for advancing and integrating coexistence research are identified.
The overview aims to bridge theoretical and empirical divides in the study of ecological coexistence.