In a sagebrush steppe community in SE Idaho, long term data and modeling have shown that coexistence among the four dominant plant species is stable, and maintained by strong stabilizing niche differences. In addition, these niche differences occur early in the plant’s life cycle, during germination and establishment.
In collaboration with Peter Adler at USU, I set up a large plant-soil feedback experiment in the field to determine whether plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) are the key stabilizing mechanism that maintains coexistence in this community. The goal is to use these experimental results in a multispecies population model to determine the relative contribution of PSFs and other niche mechanisms towards coexistence among focal species.
Publications:
Chung YA, TA Monaco, JB Taylor, PB Adler. (2023) Do plant-soil feedbacks maintain coexistence in a sagebrush steppe? Ecology e4056.
Chung YA, PJ Ke, PB Adler. Mechanistic approaches to investigate soil microbe-mediated plant competition. Journal of Ecology 111: 1590-1597.
