 Plant evolution along the ‘fast–slow’ growth economics spectrum under altered precipitation regimesMagnus Lindh and Stefano Manzoni Ecological Modelling, 2021, vol. 448, issue C Abstract: Plants have evolved different strategies to withstand drought. In general, these strategies can be defined along a plant economics spectrum, which classifies plants depending on whether their growth rate is fast or slow, where fast growth is associated with high mortality, high water use, and high sensitivity to drought. Which strategy along this economy spectrum will be selected under different precipitation regimes is an open question. We address this question with a minimal soil–plant model in which a single plant economy trait related to growth rate characterizes the plant strategy. This generic and dimensionless trait influences both recruitment and mortality, but not background mortality. We explore the evolution of this trait by quantifying its effects on birth, mortality, and transpiration rates. Furthermore, we explore the influence of direct plant density dependence acting on recruitment and mortality, in addition to the indirect density dependence caused by plant feedback on soil water content. Keywords: Evolutionarily stable strategy; Tragedy of the commons; Soil water content; Plant economics; Optimal strategy; Trait based model (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:448:y:2021:i:c:s0304380021001010 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2021.109531 Access Statistics for this article Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier |
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