EAGER: Determining the role of priority effects within dominant species to govern intra-specific variation and diversity

University Of Oklahoma Norman Campus, Norman OK

Investigators

Abstract

This research will extend an important area of current research that has explored how ecological communities re-assemble after disturbance events like fires, floods or droughts. Recent studies have shown that the order in which different species arrive to an area often has a big influence on the makeup and function of the resulting ecological community, with early arrivers having an advantage over late arrivers. This is referred to as a priority effect. This research will use plant populations in the Southern Great Plains to extend this idea beyond interactions among species, looking at whether priority effects in the interactions among individuals of the same species shape populations in terms of the diversity and their functions in the ecosystem. Researchers will study six different grass species, allowing comparison of species that are native to the Great Plains to some that are invading non-natives. This comparison will strengthen our understanding of how diversity within species comes about and influences the rest of the community, and may help us manage this important habitat. In addition, findings from this study will be a major step forward into broader implications including novel approaches to ecological intensification efforts in sustainable agriculture. The project also will provide research training for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, including women and students from underrepresented minority groups. Understanding the significance of intra-specific diversity for the functioning and services of ecosystems, including the cycling of water and carbon, is novel. The research project will investigate the generalization of priority effects driven by resource competition during community assembly to the context of intra-specific interactions, in order to determine intra-specific biodiversity and ecosystem function in three native and three exotic plant species commonly found in the Southern Great Plains. Cutting-edge plant genotyping will be linked with plant phenotyping via quantification of above- and belowground functional and physiological traits, to describe the patterns of association of genetic and phenotypic diversity within and across sites. These data will inform the construction of greenhouse mesocosm experiments which will be used to test hypotheses regarding the relative importance of priority effects among types of sites and between native and non-native species. The latter experiments will shed light on how the outcomes of plant genotype arrival order during population organization ultimately shapes the functioning of ecosystems.