The ecology of plant interactions: Integrating plant behavior, traits, and community assembly

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Limited resource availability impacts species coexistence, foraging decisions, and the outcome of other ecological processes (e.g. plant-microbe interactions, herbivory, pollination). Ecological and evolutionary biologists have long viewed competition to be a critically important process affecting individuals, populations, and communities. Consequently, competition sits as a central mechanism of many fundamental theories (e.g. natural selection, competitive exclusion, limiting similarity etc.). However, the mechanistic understanding of the competitive process among plants, along with an empirically-driven understanding of competitions consequences for communities, is surprisingly limited. My past and future research program is centered on using an empirical approach to understanding the ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences of plant interactions, with an emphasis on belowground processes. In this proposal, I focus on three areas: (i) plant competition and community assembly, (ii) plant foraging and behavioural ecology, and (iii) multiple ecological stressors. This work builds upon several recent discoveries, and continues to rely upon my experimental approach to understanding ecological processes. More specifically, over the next five years, I will address four short-term objectives: 1. Test the prediction that the impact of competition impact on community structure and assembly is dependent upon the degree of competitive size-asymmetry (CSA) occurring within the community. 2. Disentangle the relationships among traits, relatedness, and competition. Test whether the framework of competitive tolerance, resistance, and suppression improves general understanding.3. Link patterns in plant behavioral responses to soil nutrients and neighboring roots to observed patterns of habitat occupancy by roots. Develop a non-destructive and image-based methodology to allow for repeated measures of root distributions.4. Integrate the consequences of behavioral shifts in root distributions with plant competition theory potential responses to multiple stressors. Central to this research will be the extensive training of HQP at the undergraduate, MSc & PhD, and PDF levels. The success of my research program is highly dependent upon effective mentorship, helping encourage individuals as they develop as scientists. As evidenced from the publication record and current positions of my previous lab members, I have previously been successful in my training efforts. In intend to carry forward with the HQP training plan I have developed over the last 14 years, while also adapting to changes in scientific culture.Though the research presented in the proposal is drawn from broad conceptual theory, its relevance to issues of concern in Canada and elsewhere is not abstract. My work on plant foraging behaviour, and understanding the factors which influence how plant explore the soil has direct implications for agriculture and crop breeding. Though those aspects will not be funded through the DG program, I anticipate collaborative projects (e.g. CRD) to emerge over the next five years. Similarly, biodiversity conservation is of great national and international interest, and it is routinely being challenged through the introduction of novel species and altered resources. In turn, these have the potential to impact the competitive dynamics of natural systems. Unfortunately, the mechanistic linkages between anthropogenic changes and species loss are less well understood than needed; effective and affordable mitigation and restoration is dependent upon core ecological understanding. Thus, I also anticipate potential for collaborative studies to emerge from the competition-based research outlined here.