Abstract
Environmental fluctuations can in theory allow the coexistence of ecologically similar species by ‘timesharing’ a niche, as envisioned by Hutchinson. The evolution of this situation is studied in a competition model, using as an example the evolution of seed germination strategies. Coexistence occurs via the evolution of ‘low-risk’ and ‘high-risk’ strategies for dealing with the variability by different species. Coexistence is promoted by intermediate levels of variability or disturbance, and by a trade-off between seed yield and seed survivorship. These results may be applicable also to other low vs. high risk life history options in unpredictably varying environments, such as: stress resistance vs. potentially rapid growth, high adult survivorship vs. high reproductive output. The model’s predictions differ from those obtained without consideration of life history evolution in response to environmental variability, and are consistent with some recent studies of plant strategies in intermittently stressed communities.
I thank A. Shmida for many discussions on this topic, D. Cohen and I. Noy-Meir for comments after a seminar presentation of this paper, and H. de Kroon, H. During, and E. Van der Maarel for decreasing my ignorance of the empirical literature.
Research conducted while the author was recipient of a Sir Charles Clore Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abrams, P., 1984. Variability in resource consumption rates and the coexistence of competing species. Theor. Pop. Biol. 25: 106–124.
Ågren, G. I. & Fagerström, T., 1984. Limiting dissimilarity in plants: randomness prevents exclusion of species with similar competitive abilities. Oikos 43: 369–375.
Boorman, L., 1982. Some plant growth patterns in relation to the sand dune habit. J. Ecol. 70: 607–614.
Bulmer, M. G., 1984. Delayed germination of seeds: Cohen’s model revisited. Theor. Pop. Biol. 26: 367–377.
Chesson, P. L., 1982. The stabilizing effect of a random environment. J. Math. Biol. 15: 1–36.
Chesson, P. L., 1986. Environmental variation and the coexistence of species. In: T. Case & J. Diamond (eds), Community ecology, pp. 240–256. Harper & Row, New York.
Chesson, P. L. & Warner, R. R., 1981. Environmental variability promotes coexistence in lottery competitive systems. Am. Nat. 117: 923–943.
Cohen, D., 1966. Optimizing reproduction in a randomly varying environment..J. Theor. Biol. 12: 110–129.
Cohen, D., 1968. A general model of optimal reproduction in a randomly varying environment. J. Ecol. 56: 219–228.
Cushing, J., 1980. Two species competition in a periodic environment. J. Math. Biol. 10: 385–400.
Cushing, J., 1984. Periodic two predator, one prey interactions and the time sharing of a resource niche. SIAM J. Appl. Math. 44: 392–410.
De Mottoni, P. & Schiaffino, A., 1981. Competition systems with periodic coefficients: a geometric approach. J. Math. Biol. 11: 319–335.
During, H. J., Schenkeveld, A. J., Verkaar, H. J. & Willems, J. H., 1985. Demography of short-lived forbs in chalk grassland in relation to vegetation structure. In: J. White (ed.), The population structure of vegetation, pp. 341–370. Junk, Dordrecht.
Ellner, S., 1984. Asymptotic behavior of some stochastic difference equation population models. J. Math. Biol. 19: 169–200.
Ellner, S., 1985. ESS germination strategies in randomly varying environments. Theor. Pop. Biol. 28: 50–79, 80–116.
Ernst, W. H. O., 1983. Anpassungsstrategien einjähriger Dünenpflanzen. Verh. Ges. Ökologie (Mainz 1981) 10: 485–495.
Ernst, W. H. O., 1985. Some considerations of - and perspectives in coastal ecology. Vegetatio 62: 533–545.
Evenari, M., Shanan, L. & Tadmor, N., 1971. The Negev: The challenge of a desert. Harvard U. Press, Cambridge, MA.
Grime, J. P., 1979. Plant strategies and vegetation processes. Wiley, New York.
Groenendijk, A. M., 1985. Ecological consequences of tidal management for the salt-marsh vegetation. Vegetatio 62: 415–424.
Grubb, P. J., 1977. The maintenance of species-richness in plant communities: the importance of the regeneration niche. Biol. Rev. 52: 107–145.
Grubb, P. J., Kelly, D. & Mitchley, J., 1982. The control of relative abundance in communities of herbaceous plants. In: E. I. Newman (ed.), The plant community as a working mechanism, pp. 79–97, Blackwell, Oxford.
Harper, J. L., 1977. Population biology of plants. Academic Press, New York.
Havill, D. C., Ingold, A. & Pearson, J., 1985. Sulfide tolerance in coastal halophytes. Vegetatio 62: 279–285.
Hutchinson, G. E., 1961. The paradox of the plankton. Am. Nat. 95: 137–145.
Klopfer, P. H. & MacArthur, R. H., 1961. On the causes of tropical species diversity: niche overlap. Am. Nat. 95: 223–226.
Levin, S. A., 1980. Some models for the evolution of adaptive traits. In: C. Barigozzi (ed.), Vito Volterra Symposium on mathematical models in biology. Proc., Rome 1979, pp. 56–72. Springer, New York.
May, R. M., 1973. Stability in randomly fluctuating versus deterministic environments. Am. Nat. 107: 621–650.
May, R. M., 1974. On the theory of niche overlap. Theor. Pop. Biol. 5: 297–332.
May, R. M. & MacArthur, R. H., 1972. Niche overlap as a function of environmental variability. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 69: 1109–1113.
Maynard Smith, J., 1982. Evolution and the theory of games. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Menges, E. S. & Waller, D. M., 1983. Plant strategies in relation to elevation and light in floodplain herbs. Am. Nat. 122: 454–473.
Rozema, J., Bijwaard, P., Prast, G. & Brockman, R., 1985. Ecophysiological adaptations of coastal halophytes from foredunes and salt marshes. Vegetatio 62: 499–521.
Schat, H., 1983. Germination ecology of some dune-slack pioneers. Acta Bot. Neerl. 32: 203–212.
Schat, H. & Scholten, J., 1985. Comparative population ecology of dune slack species: the relation between population stability and germination behaviour in brackish environments. Vegetatio 61: 189–195.
Shmida, A. & Ellner, S., 1984. Coexistence of plant species with similar niches. Vegetatio 58: 29–55.
Slatkin, M., 1978. The dynamics of a population in a Markovian environment. Ecology 59: 249–256.
Tilman, D., 1982. Resource competition and community structure. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Turelli, M., 1978. A reexamination of stability in randomly varying versus deterministic environments with comments on the stochastic theory of limiting similarity. Theor. Pop. Biol. 13: 244–267.
Turelli, M., 1981. Niche overlap and invasion of competitors in random environments. I. Models without demographic stochasticity. Theor. Pop. Biol. 20: 1–56.
Whittaker, R. H., 1975. Communities and ecosystems. MacMillan, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1987 Dr W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ellner, S. (1987). Alternate plant life history strategies and coexistence in randomly varying environments. In: Prentice, I.C., van der Maarel, E. (eds) Theory and models in vegetation science. Advances in vegetation science, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4061-1_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4061-1_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8303-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-4061-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive