Coexistence of Competing Plants Under Plant–Soil Feedback

Plant–soil feedback (PSF), the reciprocal interaction between plants and their soil environment, is a fundamental ecological process that can influence coexistence and functional structure in plant communities. Current theory establishes that PSF may enhance diversity or lead to exclusion depending on whether soil conditioning disproportionately benefits heterospecific or conspecific individuals. However, a more complete picture of the impact of PSF requires understanding how PSF interacts with competition. To that end, here we propose an integrated mathematical model combining trait-based competition and soil-explicit PSF. Contrary to the current paradigm, we find that soil conditioning that disproportionately favours conspecific individuals can promote coexistence. Additionally, we show that priority effects are common when soil-conditioning species differ in their edaphic preferences. These effects can allow species with large differences in competitive ability to coexist under certain soil conditions. Our results provide testable predictions tying community-level functional patterns in plant communities to PSF and competition.