Plants that differ in height investment can coexist if they are distributing non-uniformly within an area |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 129, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia;2. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Wealth from Oceans Flagship, Castray Esplanade, Hobart, TAS 7000, Australia;3. Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB No. 3, Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia;1. Department of Marine Biology, Pukyong National University, Busan 608737, Republic of Korea;2. Research and Development Planning Division, National Fisheries Research & Development Institute, Busan 619705, Republic of Korea;1. Zoology Department, Oklahoma State University, United States;2. Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Bell Museum of Natural History, University of Minnesota, United States;3. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, United States;4. Institute for Applied Ecology and Collaborative Research Network for Murray-Darling Basin Futures, University of Canberra, Australia;5. Oklahoma Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Oklahoma State University, United States;6. Department of Zoology, Weber State University, United States;1. Forest and Nature Lab, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, B-9090 Melle-Gontrode, Belgium;2. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Gaverstraat 4, B-9500 Geraardsbergen, Belgium;3. Division Forest, Nature and Landscape, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, Box 2411, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium;1. Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 8198 - Evo-Eco-Paleo, F-59000 Lille, France;2. CPHT, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, route de Saclay, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex-France;3. Eco-Evolution Mathématique, CNRS UMR 7625, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, 46 rue d''Ulm, 75230 Paris cedex 05, France;4. University of Arizona, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Tucson AZ 85721, USA;5. CMAP, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, route de Saclay, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex-France;6. Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 8524 - Laboratoire P. Painlevé, UFR de Mathématiques, F-59000 Lille, France |
| |
| Abstract: | In nature, there is a large variability in the intrinsic height of plants living within an area. The question arises whether these height differences affect the plants’ ability to coexist and thus is an adaptive trait.Using a biologically mechanistic model, we explored the possibilities for coexistence of plant types that differ in their pattern of allocation between stem (i.e. height growth) and other organs. We simulated the competition for light between growing individual plants. The study was game theoretical in the sense that each individual plant at any time affected the light availability for all plants in a locality, making conditions variable throughout the growing season and between seasons when the composition of competing plants changed.It was found that plant types that differed in their allocation to height growth could coexist over the course of years when these plants distributed their seeds non-uniformly in space, creating local differences in plant density. At each different density, one type with a specific investment in height performed better (i.e. achieved a greater seed production) than the rest of the types, thus preventing the exclusion of that type over the years. The resulting model community was self-assembling; local densities and competitive pressures originated as traits from the model plants themselves and were not the result of imposed external factors acting upon the model community.This mechanistic modelling approach shows that a condition as simple as a non-uniform distribution of seeds can generate the conditions for plants of various height growth strategies to live together over multiple generations. This study suggests that differences in plant height can be an emerging property of dispersing populations. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
