Before revision: 1. In many grassland communities, the identity of dominant speciesmay be determined by initial frequency owing to priority effects. Yet, the conditions for these priority effects remain unclear. 2. Focusing on interactions between annual and perennial plants, we used a simulation model to investigate how longevity, fecundity, and the competitive ability of seedlings might affect the probability of equilibrium priority effects (alternative stable states) and transient priority effects (alternative transient states).
After revision: Life-history tradeoffs among species are major drivers of community assembly. Most studies investigate how tradeoffs promote deterministic coexistence of species. It remains unclear how tradeoffs may instead promote historically contingent exclusion of species, where species dominance is affected by initial abundances, causing alternative community states. Focusing on the establishment-longevity tradeoff, we study the transient dynamics and equilibrium outcomes of competitive interactions in a simulation model to investigate how longevity, fecundity, and the competitive ability of seedlings might affect the probability of equilibrium priority effects (alternative stable states) and transient priority effects (alternative transient states).