Scientists set up 45 artificial ponds near St. Louis and studied them for 7 years; even when ponds got the same species, the order they arrived changed the outcome

A recent examination of 45 plastic cattle tanks has shed light on the significant role that species arrival order plays in biodiversity. Tanks with low nutrients exhibited similar communities irrespective of this order, while high nutrient tanks presented diverse variations. This phenomenon, termed the priority effect, has implications for community stability and ecosystem restoration efforts, cautioning restoration ecologists against presuming automatic self-repair in nutrient-rich habitats.