Rudolf, Volker H.W.2024-05-212024-052024-04-16May 2024Zou, Hengxing. The temporal dimension of species interactions at multiple scales. (2024). PhD diss., Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/116124https://hdl.handle.net/1911/116124EMBARGO NOTE: This item is embargoed until 2024-11-01Time structures ecological communities. The strength and outcomes of species interactions are often determined by the temporal sequence and interval of species arrival, a phenomenon termed priority effects. As climate change shifts species timing (phenology) worldwide, we need a general theoretical framework to understand the diverse biological mechanisms underlying priority effects and their consequences in various communities. I first propose a general categorization of priority effects based on their biological mechanisms and the time scales at which they operate. With simulation and experiments of two species communities, I show that the importance of the two categories of mechanisms depends on relative scales between differences in arrival times and the length of the life cycles. Scaling up, I show that how biodiversity changes with dispersal in spatially structured, multispecies communities is also determined by the category of priority effects. Finally, I extend priority effects beyond pairwise interaction with a three-species mechanistic model of plant-soil feedback and propose a general framework to quantify such time-dependent interaction modifications. Together, these works provide a new direction in studying temporal processes in complex communities.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.community assemblyphenologypriority effectsseasonstage structuredispersal-diversity relationshipshigher-order interactionsplant-soil feedbackThesis2024-05-21