Cyclic population dynamics and density-dependent intransitivity as pathways to coexistence between co-occurring annual plants

1. Recent studies have brought renewed attention to the importance of complex species interactions - notably intransitive interactions - to patterns of plant community diversity. One underappreciated avenue through which intransitivity can occur is through cyclic population dynamics. Though such cyclic intransitive relationships have been extensively studied in predator-prey systems, evidence of their importance in competitive communities, notably plant communities, is more limited. Most studies of coexistence in plant communities assume fixed-point coexistence even while utilizing models that allow for cyclic population dynamics. 2. In this paper, we explore the potential for density-dependent, cyclic population dynamics and intransitivity in a model for annual plants. We then examine how these density-dependent cycles impact mutual invasibility and ultimately stable coexistence between plant species pairs. We do this using data collected from four co-occurring annual plant species li...