Multiple-niche polymorphisms in plant populations

Demonstrates that soft selection governs the evolution of characters associated with germination and establishment, and hard selection governs the evolution of characters associated with late-season survival and the allocation of resources to reproduction. Dempster's hard-selection conditions are obtained exactly for the evolution of characters associated with fecundity and late-season mortality. Leven's soft-selection conditions are recovered, approximately, for the evolution of characters associated with the survival of seeds, germination, and early-season mortality. The degree of approximation is equal to the reciprocal of the number of progeny left by a plant growing in isolation. -from Authors