We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
The effect of nutrients and spacing on neighbor relations in Cardamine pensylvanica
- Authors
Molofsky, J.
- Abstract
I used a one-dimensional hierarchical design to determine the effectof local versus long-distance neighbors on the growth and reproduction of the annual weed, Cardamine pensylvanica. I measured the response of target plants to the presence or absence of neighbors at the first- and second-nearest neighbor positions and to the overall spatial pattern (clumped, even or random) of neighbors. In addition, I investigated how variation in interplant spacing and nutrient levels combined with neighbor effects to influence the growth and reproduction of C. pensylvanica. How plants were affected by their neighbors dependedupon nutrient levels, plant spacing, and the number of first- and second-position neighbors. Under low nutrient conditions and the closest spacing (0.5 cm), plant growth was so restricted that individual neighbor effects were overshadowed by the overall density effect. At the intermediate spacing (1.0 cm), both the first and the second neighbor influenced fruit number, but at the farthest spacing (1.5 cm) onlythe first neighbor was significant. Under high nutrient conditions, at all three spacings, first neighbors significantly affected biomassand fruit number, but there were differences among the spacing treatments in how target plants were affected by neighbors. Furthermore, under high nutrients there was a significant global pattern x first neighbor interaction. C. pensylvanica grown in the clumped global pattern with no neighbors at the first position produced significantly more fruit than did plants under any of the other global x neighbor combinations. Although long-distance interactions were only important under special circumstances, their effect was dramatic (an almost two-fold increase in fruit production). This study represents the first experimental test of the assumptions underlying the use of cellular automata models to model plant population dynamics. The results support the basic assumption of cellular automata models i.e., that nearest neighb
- Subjects
BOTANY; PLANTS; WEED science
- Publication
Oikos, 1999, Vol 84, Issue 3, p506
- ISSN
0030-1299
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3546429