Community assembly and ecosystem processes in the light of evolutionary history: the formation and function of plant communities

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The quest to understand the fundamental processes determining species coexistence and resulting patterns of diversity has been of central importance for community ecologists for a century. In spite of a rich literature, the question remains: How important are species' similarities and differences in generating the ecological communities and processes we observe? Our current understanding is that the ability of a species to enter a community depends on two things: the degree of overlap in resource use, where niche partitioning promotes stable coexistence, and the magnitude of fitness differences among species. I will use evolutionary relationships and trait differences among plant species to understand mechanisms of coexistence, and therefore community diversity patterns. I will employ observational, experimental and theoretical approaches to test how spatially and temporally contingent processes interact with species traits in determining the coexistence of different plant species. My research will be comprised of four objectives. First will be to assess how niche differences are represented by evolutionary relationships among plant species. Second will be a large experimental manipulation of plant diversity at Jokers Hill to see how much evolutionary history matters in ecosystem processes such as biomass production and maintaining pollinator diversity. Third will be to assess how diversity in the previous experiment predicts the success of introduced exotics species. The final objective will be to monitor alvar communities (an endangered habitat type) and to evaluated the role fo species relationships for patterns of diversity, function and invasion. Determining the role of evolutionary history and trait differences is key to understanding how communities are put together and why they function the way they do. Such an understanding can allow scientists to evaluate species conservation value and how to maximize the function of restored communities. My proposed research will be the first to evaluate how evolutionary history impacts current coexistence and ecosystem function.