Although ecologists have long considered morphology and life
history to be important determinants of the distribution,
abundance, and dynamics of plants in nature, this book contains the
first theory to predict explicitly both the evolution of plant
traits and the effects of these traits on plant community structure
and dynamics. David Tilman focuses on the universal requirement of
terrestrial plants for both below-ground and above-ground
resources. The physical separation of these resources means that
plants face an unavoidable tradeoff. To obtain a higher proportion
of one resource, a plant must allocate more of its growth to the
structures involved in its acquisition, and thus necessarily obtain
a lower proportion of another resource. Professor Tilman presents a
simple theory that includes this constraint and tradeoff, and uses
the theory to explore the evolution of plant life histories and
morphologies along productivity and disturbance gradients.
The book shows that relative growth rate, which is predicted to
be strongly influenced by a plant's proportional allocation to
leaves, is a major determinant of the transient dynamics of
competition. These dynamics may explain the differences between
successions on poor versus rich soils and suggest that most field
experiments performed to date have been of too short a duration to
allow unambiguous interpretation of their results.
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