Theory for Community Dynamics in Spatially and Temporally Variable Environments

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

Peter Chesson DEB-9981926 Mathematical models of species competing in space and time will be studied using a combination of analytical, simulation, and numerical methods. Three specific sorts of natural community will form foci of this work: annual plants with persistence seed banks (especially those found in arid environments), perennial herbs that spread spatially by vegetative means, and long-lived perennial organisms that do not have vegetative spread but have multiple reproductive events in the life of an individual (iteroparity). The research will examine how life-history traits, such as those defining these different communities, interact with environmental variation in space and time and affect coexistence of species and therefore affect maintenance of species diversity. In addition to the features distinguishing the above systems, important factors are expected to be mode of dispersal of offspring, distance of dispersal, and spatial and temporal scales of competition between individual organisms. This work will extend to the spatial domain previous findings on the role of temporal environmental variation and its interactions with life-history traits on the maintenance of species diversity.