Neighborhood models of plant population dynamics. 4. Single- species and multispecies models of annuals with dormant seeds.

Dormancy-induced changes in lifetime germination successes affect the equilibrium densities of plants and the local stability of equilibria. Dormancy induced population dynamic time lags, in contrast, do not affect equilibrium densities of post-germination plants or the ability of an invader to colonize a multispecies community successfully. In single-species populations, time lags are never destabilizing but may be stabilizing. Specifically, some strategies of dormancy (a way to partition lifetime germination success among the various age classes of seeds) cause an otherwise oscillatory monoculture (eigenvalue <-1) to have a locally stable positive equilibrium. The maximum distance over which a plant of one species can interfere with a plant of other species is termed the neighborhood radius. The population-dynamic consequences of the sizes of the radii are examined in 1- and 2-species communities. -from Author