On the growth of locally interacting plants: differential equations for the dynamics of spatial moments

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
ECOLOGICAL SOC AMER
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
English
Date
2013
Authors
Adams TP
Holland EP
Law R
Raghib M
Plank, Michael
Abstract

Ecologists are faced with the challenge of how to scale up from the activities of individual plants and animals to the macroscopic dynamics of populations and communities. It is especially difficult to do this in communities of plants where the fate of individuals depends on their immediate neighbors rather than an average over a larger region. This has meant that algorithmic, agent-based models are typically used to understand their dynamics, although certain macroscopic models have been developed for neighbor-dependent, birth- death processes. Here we present a macroscopic model that, for the first time, incorporates explicit, gradual, neighbor-dependent plant growth, as a third fundamental process of plant communities. The model is derived from a stochastic, agent-based model, and describes the dynamics of the first and second spatial moments of a multispecies, spatially structured plant community with neighbor-dependent growth, births, and deaths. A simple example shows that strong neighborhood space-filling during tree growth in an even-aged stand of Scots pine is well captured by the spatial-moment model. The space-filling has a spatial signature consistent with that observed in several field studies of forests. Small neighborhoods of interaction, nonuniform spacing of trees, and asymmetric competition all contribute to the buildup of a wide range of tree sizes with some large dominant individuals and many smaller ones. © 2013 by the Ecological Society of America.

Description
Citation
Adams TP, Holland EP, Law R, Plank MJ, Raghib M (2013). On the growth of locally interacting plants: differential equations for the dynamics of spatial momentsOn the growth of locally interacting plants: differential equations for the dynamics of spatial moments. Ecology. 94(12). 2732-2743.
Keywords
Ecology, individual-based model, Pinus sylvestris, plant growth, population dynamics, spatial interaction, spatial-moment dynamics, spatial pattern, stochastic model, tree stand development, FOREST STRUCTURES, PINE FOREST, COMPETITION, MODEL, SIZE, TREES, PATTERNS, POPULATIONS, DISTANCE, CANOPY
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
0501 Ecological Applications
0602 Ecology
0603 Evolutionary Biology
Field of Research::06 - Biological Sciences::0602 - Ecology::060207 - Population Ecology
Field of Research::06 - Biological Sciences::0602 - Ecology::060202 - Community Ecology
Field of Research::01 - Mathematical Sciences::0102 - Applied Mathematics::010202 - Biological Mathematics
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