If they are, add to ms ... much of coexistence theory (and priority effects) treats species timing as a species-level trait, but this approach treats it as species x environment `trait.' If the environment were stationary, treating timing as a species-level trait could be okay -- for example, you might find that the environment basically averages out. But if the environment is changing this matters.
Also, this model by more realistically representing germination -- timing as a f(x) of the environment -- changes how we think about intra-specific and interspecific competition. If a species goes early and all at once, it should experience higher intraspecific competition that a species that spreads out germination timing. This might be a reason it's not great to have a tight germination response (though in our model we have confounded this with being early).
If they are, add to ms ... much of coexistence theory (and priority effects) treats species timing as a species-level trait, but this approach treats it as species x environment `trait.' If the environment were stationary, treating timing as a species-level trait could be okay -- for example, you might find that the environment basically averages out. But if the environment is changing this matters.
Also, this model by more realistically representing germination -- timing as a f(x) of the environment -- changes how we think about intra-specific and interspecific competition. If a species goes early and all at once, it should experience higher intraspecific competition that a species that spreads out germination timing. This might be a reason it's not great to have a tight germination response (though in our model we have confounded this with being early).