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Flee or fight uncertainty : Plant strategies in relation to anticipated damage

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Author

  • Johannes Järemo
  • Jörgen Ripa
  • Patric Nilsson

Summary, in English

In order to cope with damage, plants have evolved a number of strategies. We incorporate two of those strategies, compensatory regrowth and escaping damage in time, into a mathematical model in an attempt to outline under what circumstances one or the other of these phenotypic traits will evolve. Escaping damage in time is accomplished by flowering and setting seeds at a point of time when the risk of damage is low, whereas a compensatory capacity is made possible by activating a proportion of meristems that are left dormant. Our analysis suggests that damage that is predictable in time will favour phenotypes that flower late in the season and that have a good compensatory capacity. As damage becomes less predictable in time, a strategy that implies flowering as early as possible in the season and with no compensatory capacity at all, becomes advantageous.

Department/s

Publishing year

1999

Language

English

Pages

361-366

Publication/Series

Ecology Letters

Volume

2

Issue

6

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Ecology

Keywords

  • Bet-hedging
  • Bud dormancy
  • Compensation
  • Damage
  • Flowering time
  • Herbivory
  • Predictability

Status

Published

Research group

  • Theoretical Population Ecology and Evolution Group

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1461-023X