Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I The Earth System
- Part II Global Physical Climatology
- Part III Soil Processes
- Part IV Hydrometeorology
- Part V Biometeorology
- Part VI Terrestrial Plant Ecology
- 19 Plant strategies
- 20 Populations and communities
- 21 Ecosystems
- 22 Vegetation dynamics
- 23 Disturbances and landscapes
- 24 Global biogeography
- Part VII Terrestrial Forcings and Feedbacks
- Index
- Plate section
- References
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core
19 - Plant strategies
from Part VI - Terrestrial Plant Ecology
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I The Earth System
- Part II Global Physical Climatology
- Part III Soil Processes
- Part IV Hydrometeorology
- Part V Biometeorology
- Part VI Terrestrial Plant Ecology
- 19 Plant strategies
- 20 Populations and communities
- 21 Ecosystems
- 22 Vegetation dynamics
- 23 Disturbances and landscapes
- 24 Global biogeography
- Part VII Terrestrial Forcings and Feedbacks
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Chapter summary
A plant uses the carbon gained during photosynthesis for maintenance and survival, to grow new materials such as foliage or roots, and for reproduction. Nitrogen and other nutrients are required to support these processes, and a plant must allocate its limited available resources among growth, maintenance, and reproduction in a manner such that the species persists over time. Different strategies for allocating resources, collectively known as life history patterns, have evolved through natural selection that allow plant species to persist in certain environments. A successful strategy might be to invest heavily in reproductive effort. The plant could be small, short lived, and have copious, widely dispersed seeds, such as a herbaceous annual. An equally successful strategy might be to be large, long lived, and have a small crop of large seeds, such as a tree. This life history favors maintenance over reproduction. There are multiple life history patterns that allow success in a given environment, but not all are successful in all environments. The environment selectively determines which strategy is successful. These life histories ensure the persistence of multiple species across the landscape in accordance with resource gradients and disturbance regimes. They give pattern to the arrangement of plant populations and communities in space and time. Three conceptualizations of plant strategies are the classifications of species into: r- and K-selected life histories; ruderal, competitor, and stress tolerator plants; and early and late successional species.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ecological ClimatologyConcepts and Applications, pp. 275 - 291Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
and , 1973. Growth form and reproductive effort in goldenrods (Solidago, Compositae). American Naturalist, 107, 651–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , and , 1999. Terrestrial Plant Ecology, 3rd edn. Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company.Google Scholar
, 1979. The physiological ecology of plant succession. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 10, 351–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1996. Plants in Changing Environments: Linking Physiological, Population, and Community Ecology. Cambridge University Press, 320 pp.Google Scholar
, 1997. Allocation of resources in plants: state of the science and critical questions. In Plant Resource Allocation, ed. and . Academic Press, pp. 1–37.Google Scholar
, , and , 1985. Resource limitation in plants – an economic analogy. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 16, 363–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and , 2002. Landscapes as patches of plant functional types: an integrating concept for climate and ecosystem models. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 16, 1021, doi:10.1029/2000GB001360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1979. Pattern and Process in a Forested Ecosystem. Springer-Verlag, 253 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1994. Carbon allocation in trees: a review of concepts for modeling. Advances in Ecological Research, 25, 59–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1982. The ecology of leaf life spans. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 13, 229–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and , 1999. Continuous fields of vegetation characteristics at the global scale at 1-km resolution. Journal of Geophysical Research, 104D, 16 911–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and , 2000a. Global continuous fields of vegetation characteristics: a linear mixture model applied to multi-year 8 km AVHRR data. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 21, 1389–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , and , 2000b. A new global 1-km dataset of percentage tree cover derived from remote sensing. Global Change Biology, 6, 247–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1993. The prediction and physiological significance of tree height. In Vegetation Dynamics and Global Change, ed. and . Chapman and Hall., pp. 101–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1972. The concept of r- and K-selection: evidence from wild flowers and some theoretical considerations. American Naturalist, 106, 14–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1992. Plant allocation and the multiple limitation hypothesis. American Naturalist, 139, 1322–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1990. Larches: deciduous conifers in an evergreen world. BioScience, 40, 818–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 1997. Carbon distribution and aboveground net primary production in aspen, jack pine, and black spruce stands in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada. Journal of Geophysical Research, 102D, 29 029–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1997. Toward models of resource allocation by plants. In Plant Resource Allocation, ed. and . Academic Press, pp. 279–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1977. Leaf area of mature northwestern coniferous forests: relation to site water balance. Ecology, 58, 893–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1965. Seedling establishment in vertical gradients of sunlight. Journal of Ecology, 53, 621–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1970. The reproductive strategy of higher plants. I. The concept of strategy with special reference to Senecio vulgaris L. Journal of Ecology, 58, 681–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1987. Plant succession: life history and competition. American Naturalist, 130, 168–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1966. Effects of microclimate on spring flowering phenology. Ecology, 47, 407–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1991. A cost–benefit analysis of leaf habit and leaf longevity of trees and their geographical pattern. American Naturalist, 138, 1250–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1993. Scaling from species to vegetation: the usefulness of functional groups. In Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function, ed. and . Springer-Verlag, pp. 117–40.Google Scholar
and , 1994. The role of large seed size in shaded conditions: experimental evidence. Functional Ecology, 8, 205–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1988. Tree life history strategies: the role of defenses. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 18, 209–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1994. Climate influences the leaf area/sapwood area ratio in Scots pine. Tree Physiology, 15, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1982. Constraints on leaf structure and function in reference to herbivory. BioScience, 32, 198–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1989. Testing a theoretical climate–soil–leaf area hydrologic equilibrium of forests using satellite data and ecosystem simulation. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 44, 245–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1996. Implementation of a hierarchical global vegetation classification in ecosystem function models. Journal of Vegetation Science, 7, 337–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 2007. Maximum plant height and the biophysical factors that limit it. Tree Physiology, 27, 433–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1980. The use of vital attributes to predict successional changes in plant communities subject to recurrent disturbances. Vegetatio, 43, 5–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1934. The Life Forms of Plants and Statistical Plant Geography. Clarendon Press, 632 pp.Google Scholar
, , , and , 1995. Causes and consequences of variation in conifer leaf life-span. In Ecophysiology of Coniferous Forests, ed. and . Academic Press, pp. 225–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , and , Jr., 1995. A remote sensing based vegetation classification logic for global land cover analysis. Remote Sensing of Environment, 51, 39–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1991. Effects of climate change on plant respiration. Ecological Applications, 1, 157–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and , 1997. Hydraulic limits to tree height and tree growth. BioScience, 47, 235–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1996. Seedling longevity under deep shade in relation to seed size. Journal of Ecology, 84, 681–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1984. A Theory of Forest Dynamics: the Ecological Implications of Forest Succession Models. Springer-Verlag, 278 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1987. Dynamic ecosystem consequences of tree birth and death patterns. BioScience, 37, 596–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1998. Terrestrial Ecosystems in Changing Environments. Cambridge University Press, 537 pp.Google Scholar
, , , and , 1993. Plant functional types. In Vegetation Dynamics and Global Change, ed. and . Chapman and Hall, pp. 272–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (eds.), 1997. Plant Functional Types: Their Relevance to Ecosystem Properties and Global Change. Cambridge University Press, 369 pp.Google Scholar
, 1988. Plant Strategies and the Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities. Princeton University Press, 360 pp.
and , 2000. Seed size, nitrogen supply, and growth rate affect tree seedling survival in deep shade. Ecology, 81, 1887–901.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1983. Estimating forest growth and efficiency in relation to canopy leaf area. Advances in Ecological Research, 13, 327–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1991. Responses of evergreen trees to multiple stresses. In Response of Plants to Multiple Stresses, ed. , , and . Academic Press, pp. 371–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1979. Evergreen coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest. Science, 204, 1380–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and , 1982. Application of the pipe model theory to predict canopy leaf area. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 12, 556–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , and , 2002. Plant ecological strategies: some leading dimensions of variation between species. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 33, 125–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1993. Leaf responses to the environment and extrapolation to larger scales. In Vegetation Dynamics and Global Change, ed. and . Chapman and Hall, pp. 71–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1996. Plant functional types and climatic changes: introduction. Journal of Vegetation Science, 7, 306–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 2004. The worldwide leaf economics spectrum. Nature, 428, 821–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed