Does the ESS height of plant population still exist with the inclusion of spatial structure? - An individual-based model research

Authored by Sa Xiao, Shu-Yan Chen, Gang Wang

Date Published: 2007

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.01.025

Sponsors: Chinese National Natural Science Foundation

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

The game-theoretic models on plant height have reached the conclusions that there is an ESS height for the plant population on which all plants in the population should converge. Whereas none of them have considered the spatial structure and neighborhood effects of plant population. We constructed a spatially explicit game theory model to explore plant height growth under the light competition. In our model, there is no ESS height for plant population, the population at ESS height can be invaded by the alternative plant height growth strategies which is shorter than the ESS height. our results indicate that the plasticity of plant's height growth reactions to the light competition should be considered merely at the individual-level. Game-theoretic models for plant phenotypic traits should move from ``mean-field approximations{''} towards explicit modeling of local interactions. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Tags

Competition Cooperation Dynamics Evolutionary games Stands Adaptive significance Tree height Monocultures