Germination phenology as a mediator of plant competition
It's well document that competitive plant species often germinate very rapidly, but how much does this phenological head start contribute to their competitive abilities?
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By exposing seed cohorts to varying levels of cold stratification and observing their germination and growth rates in inter-specific pair-wise competition we found that a phenological head start of just 2-3 day could make the difference in competition between a widespread invasive herb and co-occurring native.
Seasonal priority effects and coexistence
Most of our knowledge about the role that phenological differences among species play in structuring community interactions comes from short term studies, yet we often suggest these differences are an important mechanism for long term coexistence.
At the end of my PhD, I performed a series growth chamber experiments to characterize the germination dynamics of a suite of temperate herbaceous species in response to varying cold stratification levels, which I am now using to parameterize a process-based model of community assembly to better understand the long term effects of phenological differences among species in the context of climate change.
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