Despite a long history and recent advances, the current body of theory only describes priority effects driven by positive frequency dependence, while many empirical studies identify biological mechanisms beyond this mechanism. With Volker Rudolf (Rice University), we bridge this gap by categorizing priority effects as frequency-dependent or trait-dependent based on their underlying biological mechanisms. The two categories represent different biological mechanisms of priority effects that can have distinctive local and regional consequences that are still largely unexplored. Our framework encourages future studies to explicitly consider the biological mechanisms and the time scales at which they operate when studying and modeling priority effects.
I presented this framework as an invited speaker in the organized Inspire session at ESA 2024 (Portlant, Oregon). This session discussed how theories in ecology and evolution often are shaped by our cognitive, cultural, social, and philosophical perceptions. Read about this session here.