Root plasticity buffers competition among plants: Theory meets experimental data

Ecology

Volumn 92, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 610-620

  Schiffers, Katja ^a,d   Tielbörger, Katja ^b   Tietjen, Britta ^c   Jeltsch, Florian ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF POTSDAM   (Germany)

^b UNIVERSITY OF TÜBINGEN   (Germany)

^c POTSDAM INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE IMPACT RESEARCH   (Germany)

^d UNIVERSITÉ JOSEPH FOURIER   (France)

Author keywords

Bromus hordeaceus; Competition intensity; Morphological plasticity; Nutrient analogues; Plant density; PSI (plastic sphere of influence); Zone of influence model

Indexed keywords

ADAPTATION; FORAGING BEHAVIOR; GRASS; MORPHOLOGY; PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY; POPULATION DENSITY; POPULATION DISTRIBUTION; RHIZOSPHERE; ROOT SYSTEM; THEORETICAL STUDY;

BROMUS HORDEACEUS;

EID: 79955537479     PISSN: 00129658     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1890/10-1086.1     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. Belisle, C. J. P. 1992. Convergence theorems for a class of simulated annealing algorithms. Journal of Applied Probability 29:885-895.
2. Bell, D., and L. Galloway. 2007. Plasticity to neighbour shade: fitness consequences and allometry. Functional Ecology 21: 1146-1153. (Pubitemid 350126656)
3. Berger, U., and H. Hildenbrandt. 2000. A new approach to spatially explicit modelling of forest dynamics: spacing, aging and neighbourhood competition of mangrove trees. Ecological Modelling 132:287-302.
4. Berger, U., H. Hildenbrandt, and V. Grimm. 2002. Towards a standard for the individual-based modeling of plant populations: self-thinning and the field-of-neighborhood approach. Natural Resource Modeling 15:39-54.
5. Berger, U., C. Piou, K. Schiffers, and V. Grimm. 2008. Competition among plants: concepts, individual-based modeling approaches, and a proposal for a future research strategy. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 9:121-135.
6. Bonan, G. B. 1991. Density effects on the size structure of annual plant populations: an indication of neighbourhood competition. Annals of Botany 68:341.
7. Brisson, J., and J. F. Reynolds. 1994. The effect of neighbors on root distribution in a creosotebush (Larrea tridentata) population. Ecology 75:1693-1702. (Pubitemid 2134516)
8. Brisson, J., and J. F. Reynolds. 1997. Effects of compensatory growth on population processes: a simulation study. Ecology 78:2378-2384. (Pubitemid 28382228)
9. Casper, B., J. Schenk, and R. B. Jackson. 2003. Defining a plant's belowground zone of influence. Ecology 84:2313-2321. (Pubitemid 37435651)
10. Chesson, P. 2000. General theory of competitive coexistence in spatially-varying environments. Theoretical Population Biology 58:211-237. (Pubitemid 33037539)
11. Czaran, T., and S. Bartha. 1992. Spatiotemporal dynamic models of plant populations and communities. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 7:38-42.
12. D'Antonio, C. M., and B. E. Mahall. 1991. Root profiles and competition between the invasive, exotic perennial, Carpobrotus edulis, and two native shrub species in California coastal scrub. American Journal of Botany 78:885-894.
13. de Kroon, H., and L. Mommer. 2006. Root foraging theory put to the test. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21:113-116. (Pubitemid 43327282)
14. Esther, A., J. Groeneveld, N. J. Enright, B. P. Miller, B. B. Lamont, G. L. W. Perry, F. Schurr, and F. Jeltsch. 2008. Assessing the importance of seed immigration on coexistence of plant functional types in a species-rich ecosystem. Ecological Modelling 213:402-416.
15. Gates, D. J., and M. Westcott. 1978. Zone of influence models for competition in plantations. Advances in Applied Probability 10:499-537.
16. Gianoli, E., and K. Palacio-Lopez. 2009. Phenotypic integration may constrain phenotypic plasticity in plants. Oikos 118: 1924-1928.
17. Hastwell, G. T., and M. A. Huston. 2001. On disturbance and diversity: a reply to Mackey and Currie. Oikos 92:367.
18. Huston, M. A., and D. L. DeAngelis. 1987. Size bimodality in monospecific populations: a critical review of potential mechanisms. American Naturalist 129:678-707.
19. Jäger, E. J., and K. Werner. 2002. Rothmaler, Exkursionsflora von Deutschland. Gefäßpflanzen: Kritischer Band, Volume 4. Spektrum, Berlin, Germany.
20. Jeltsch, F., K. Moloney, F. Schurr, M. Köchy, and M. Schwager. 2008. The state of plant population modelling in light of environmental change. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 9:171-189.
21. Markham, J. H., and C. P. Chanway. 1996. Measuring plant neighbour effects. Functional Ecology 10:548-549. (Pubitemid 27108474)
22. Martin, M. P. L. D., R. W. Snaydon, and D. S. H. Drennan. 1982. Lithium as a nonradioactive tracer for roots of intercropped species. Plant and Soil 64:203-208.
23. May, F., V. Grimm, and F. Jeltsch. 2009. Reversed effects of grazing on plant diversity: the role of below-ground competition and size symmetry. Oikos 118:1830-1843.
24. Muller, C. H. 1946. Root development and ecological relations of guayule. USDA Technical Bulletin 923.
25. Novoplansky, A. 2002. Developmental plasticity in plants: implications of non-cognitive behavior. Evolutionary Ecology 16:177-188. (Pubitemid 35008575)
26. O'Brien, E. E., J. S. Brown, and J. D. Moll. 2007. Roots in space: a spatially explicit model for below-ground competition in plants. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 274:929-934. (Pubitemid 47056742)
27. Pacala, S. W., and J. A. Silander. 1987. Neighborhood interference among velvet leaf, Abutilon theophrasti, and pigweed, Amaranthus retroflexus. Oikos 48:217-224.
28. Pinheiro, J., D. Bates, S. DebRoy, and D. Sarkar. and the R Core team. 2009. nlme: linear and nonlinear mixed-effects models. R package version 3.1-96. (http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/nlme/index.html).
29. R Development Core Team. 2009. R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. (http://www.R-project.org).
30. Robinson, D. 2001. Root proliferation, nitrate inflow and their carbon costs during nitrogen capture by competing plants in patchy soil. Plant and Soil 232:41-50. (Pubitemid 32643822)
31. Schenk, J., R. M. Callaway, and B. E. Mahall. 1999. Spatial root segregation: Are plants territorial? American Journal of Botany 28:145-180.
32. Schmitt, J., S. Dudley, and M. Pigliucci. 1999. Manipulative approaches to testing adaptive plasticity: Phytochromemediated shade-avoidance responses in plants. American Naturalist 154:43-54.
33. Schneider, M. K., R. Law, and J. B. Illian. 2006. Quantification of neighbourhood-dependent plant growth by Bayesian hierarchical modelling. Journal of Ecology 9:310-321.
34. Schwinning, S., and J. Weiner. 1998. Mechanisms determining the degree of size asymmetry in competition among plants. Oecologia 113:447-455. (Pubitemid 28126738)
35. Silvertown, J., M. Dodd, and D. Gowing. 2001. Phylogeny and the niche structure of meadow plant communities. Journal of Ecology 89:428-435. (Pubitemid 32540379)
36. Sorrensen-Cothern, K. A., E. D. Ford, and D. G. Sprugel. 1993. A model of competition incorporating plasticity through modular foliage and crown development. Ecological Monographs 63:277-304.
37. Stoll, P., and E. Bergius. 2005. Pattern and process: competition causes regular spacing of individuals within plant populations. Journal of Ecology 93:395-403. (Pubitemid 40483102)
38. Stoll, P., and J. Weiner. 2000. A neighborhood view of interactions among individual plants. Pages 11-27 in U. Dieckmann, R. Law, and J. A. J. Metz, editors. The geometry of ecological interactions: simplifiying spatial complexity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
39. Stoll, P., J. Weiner, H. Muller-Landau, E. Muller, and T. Hara. 2002. Size symmetry of competition alters biomass-density relationships. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 269:2191-2195. (Pubitemid 35341904)
40. Sultan, S. E. 2000. Phenotypic plasticity for plant development, function, and life history. Trends in Plant Science 5:537-542. (Pubitemid 32099972)
41. Tucic, B., J. Ducic, and D. Pemac. 2006. Phenotypic responses to early signals of neighbour proximity in Picea omorika, a pioneer conifer tree. Basic and Applied Ecology 7:443-454. (Pubitemid 44202662)
42. Umeki, K. 1997. Effect of crown asymmetry on size-structure dynamics of plant populations. Annals of Botany 79:631.
43. Valladares, F., E. Gionoli, and J. M. Gómez. 2007. Ecological limits to plant phenotypic plasticity. New Phytologist 176: 749-763. (Pubitemid 350098821)
44. Vincent, G., and D. Harja. 2008. Exploring ecological significance of tree crown plasticity through three-dimensional modelling. Annals of Botany 101:1221-1231.
45. Waisel, Y., A. Eshel, and U. Kafkafi. 2002. Plant roots: the hidden half. Marcel Dekker, New York, New York, USA.
46. Weiner, J. 1984. Neighbourhood in interference amongst Pinus rigida individuals. Journal of Ecology 72:183-195. (Pubitemid 16272200)
47. Weiner, J., P. Stoll, H. Muller-Landau, and A. Jasentuliyana. 2001. The effects of density, spatial pattern, and competitive symmetry on size variation in simulated plant populations. American Naturalist 158:438-450. (Pubitemid 32897096)
48. Yastrebov, A. B. 1996. Different types of heterogeneity and plant competition in monospecific stands. Oikos 75:89.
49. Zhang, J., and A. S. Hamill. 1997. Seed weight, intraspecific competition, and plant performance in Abutilon theophrasti. Canadian Journal of Botany 75:1614-1620. (Pubitemid 28025680)