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Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research
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Testing The Trait-Based Community Framework: Do Functional Traits Predict Competitive Outcomes?, Jennifer L. Funk, Amelia Wolf
Testing The Trait-Based Community Framework: Do Functional Traits Predict Competitive Outcomes?, Jennifer L. Funk, Amelia Wolf
Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research
Plant traits can be used to understand a range of ecological processes, including competition from invasive species. The extent to which native and invasive species are competing via limiting similarity or trait hierarchies has important implications for the management of invaded communities. We screened 47 native species that co-occur with Festuca perennis, a dominant invader in California serpentine grassland, for traits pertaining to resource use and acquisition. We then grew F. perennis with ten species spanning a range of functional similarity in pairwise competition trials. Functionally similar species did not have a strong adverse effect on F. perennis performance …