Soil community feedback and the coexistence of competitors: conceptual frameworks and empirical tests

A growing body of empirical work suggests that soil organisms can exert a strong role in plant community dynamics and may contribute to the coexistence of plant species. Some of this evidence comes from examining the feedback on plant growth through changes in the composition of the soil community. Host specific changes in soil community composition can generate feedback on plant growth and this feedback can be positive or negative. Previous work has demonstrated that negative soil community feedback can contribute to the coexistence of equivalent competitors. In this paper, I show that negative soil community feedback can also contribute to the coexistence of strong competitors, maintaining plant species that…

• NS
  National Science Foundation