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Vital rates contribute differently to impacts of competition on population growth
  • Shengman Lyu,
  • Jake Alexander
Shengman Lyu
ETH Zürich

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Jake Alexander
ETH Zürich
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Abstract

Competition is among the most important factors regulating plant population and community dynamics, but it is not well understood how different vital rates respond to competition and jointly mediate competitive population dynamics and species coexistence. We used integral projection models (IPMs) to model the population growth of 112 pairwise combinations of 14 competing herbaceous plant species across an elevation gradient (n = 324 IPM models in total). We showed that the response of individual growth and seedling establishment contributed most strongly to competition-induced declines in population growth compared to survival, flowering probability and fecundity that frequently showed complementary responses that occurred in 92% of species pairs. Complementary responses significantly promoted population growth under competition by 22% on average and strengthened species coexistence. Our study emphasises the need to investigate demographic processes to better understand competitive population dynamics and species coexistence.
03 Jun 2022Submitted to Ecology Letters
08 Jun 2022Assigned to Editor
08 Jun 2022Submission Checks Completed
13 Jun 2022Reviewer(s) Assigned
31 Jul 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
02 Aug 2022Editorial Decision: Revise Major
08 Nov 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
08 Nov 20221st Revision Received
08 Nov 2022Submission Checks Completed
08 Nov 2022Assigned to Editor
11 Nov 2022Reviewer(s) Assigned
07 Dec 2022Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
16 Dec 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
16 Dec 20222nd Revision Received
16 Dec 2022Assigned to Editor
16 Dec 2022Submission Checks Completed
19 Dec 2022Editorial Decision: Accept