TY - JOUR
T1 - The consequences of recruitment limitation
T2 - Reconciling chance, history and competitive differences between plants
AU - Hurtt, George C.
AU - Pacala, Stephen Wilson
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank S[ Levin\ R[ Colwell\ K[ Holsinger\ R[ May\ and several other reviewers for comments that improved this manuscript[ The support of The National Aero! nautics and Space Administration\ The National Science Foundation and The Department of Energy is gratefully acknowledged[
PY - 1995
Y1 - 1995
N2 - Plant competition for space is studied using analytical and simulation models. Here, the interaction is viewed as a local competition between juveniles of different species for environmentally variable sites vacated by the random deaths of adults. Because plants are sedentary and have finite fecundity, often only a subset of species will compete for an available site. When a dominant species is recruitment limited, inferior competitors will win some sites by forfeit. It is shown that recruitment limitation allows ’winning-by-forfeit ’ which lessens the effect of competitive asymmetries and slows population and community dynamics. Moreover, since recruitment limitation is likely to be most pronounced in highly diverse communities because of the rarity of many species, it is suggested that there is no conflict between the hypothesis that species-rich plant communities are more influenced by chance and history than regulated by competition, and observations of strong interspecific differences among plants.
AB - Plant competition for space is studied using analytical and simulation models. Here, the interaction is viewed as a local competition between juveniles of different species for environmentally variable sites vacated by the random deaths of adults. Because plants are sedentary and have finite fecundity, often only a subset of species will compete for an available site. When a dominant species is recruitment limited, inferior competitors will win some sites by forfeit. It is shown that recruitment limitation allows ’winning-by-forfeit ’ which lessens the effect of competitive asymmetries and slows population and community dynamics. Moreover, since recruitment limitation is likely to be most pronounced in highly diverse communities because of the rarity of many species, it is suggested that there is no conflict between the hypothesis that species-rich plant communities are more influenced by chance and history than regulated by competition, and observations of strong interspecific differences among plants.
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U2 - 10.1006/jtbi.1995.0170
DO - 10.1006/jtbi.1995.0170
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0028991964
SN - 0022-5193
VL - 176
SP - 1
EP - 12
JO - Journal of Theoretical Biology
JF - Journal of Theoretical Biology
IS - 1
ER -