Plant Strategies And The Dynamics And Structure Of Plant Communities

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.

In this new approach to understanding the dynamics occurring among plant populations at the community level, Tilman sets forth an exciting hypothesis to aid in explaining the factors operative in vegetation change. He emphasizes nutrient allocation, especially nitrogen and light, as a critical factor in addition to others in accounting for what is referred to as "succession" by most ecologists. Tilman initially presents some basic concepts--plant competition, resource allocation, and succession--followed by his extensive old field experiments on the Minnesota sand plain. These add support to his hypothesis concerning the role of nutrient allocation as a factor involved in vegetation change. Illustrations, including tables and figures, greatly enhance the text. A most readable book, and students of vegetation science will find it a welcome addition to their libraries. It also should find its way to all academic libraries since it is aimed primarily at professional plant ecologists. W.A. Niering Connecticut College--Choice Reviews.

Plant Strategies, Vegetation Processes, and Ecosystem Properties, Second Edition, is a thoroughly updated and comprehensive new edition of the very successful Plant Strategies and Vegetative Processes, which controversially proposed the existence of widely-recurring plant functional types with predictable relationships to vegetation structure and dynamics. This second edition uses evidence from many parts of the world to re-examine these concepts in the light of the enormous expansion in the literature. Features include: * A new section covering all aspects of ecosystem properties * New chapters on Assembling of Communities Rarification and Extinction Colonisation and Invasion * Principles and methodologies of a range of international tests including case study examples * Chapter summaries for a quick reference guide * Index of species names Written in a very readable style, this book is an invaluable reference source for researchers in the areas of plant, animal, and community ecology, conservation and land management. 'Written by one of the foremost authorities in the field, summarising over 35 years of research. A book all plant ecologists will want to read.' - Jonathan Silvertown, Department of Biological Sciences, The Open University, UK. 'The coverage is outstanding and comprehensive.' - Simon A. Levin, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, USA

Ever since the concept of the "struggle for life" became the heart of Darwin's theory of evolution, biologists have studied the relevance of interactions for the natural history and evolution of organisms. Although positive interactions among plants have traditionally received little attention, there is now a growing body of evidence showing the ef

How do plants make a living? Some plants are gamblers, others are swindlers. Some plants are habitual spenders while others are strugglers and miserly savers. Plants have evolved a spectacular array of solutions to the existential problems of survival and reproduction in a world where resources are scarce, disturbances can be deadly, and competition is cut-throat. Few topics have both captured the imagination and furrowed the brows of plant ecologists, yet no topic is more important for understanding the assembly of plant communities, predicting plant responses to global change, and enhancing the restoration of our rapidly degrading biosphere. The vast array of plant strategy models that characterize the discipline now require synthesis. These models tend to emphasize either life history strategies based on demography, or functional strategies based on ecophysiology. Indeed, this disciplinary divide between demography and physiology runs deep and continues to this today. The goal of this accessible book is to articulate a coherent framework that unifies life history theory with comparative functional ecology to advance prediction in plant ecology. Armed with a deeper understanding of the dimensionality of life history and functional traits, we are now equipped to quantitively link phenotypes to population growth rates across gradients of resource availability and disturbance regimes. Predicting how species respond to global change is perhaps the most important challenge of our time. A robust framework for plant strategy theory will advance this research agenda by testing the generality of traits for predicting population dynamics.

Explains how natural selection, combined with methods in statistical physics, can predict and explain the assembly of ecological communities.

Provides a comprehensive review of the role of species interactions in the process of plant community assembly.