Plant allocation and the multiple limitation hypothesis

Although optimal foraging theory applied to plant expenditure on resource uptake predicts that plant morphology and physiology should be adjusted to make all resources simultaneously limiting, two considerations make it unlikely that resource enrichment experiments will show strong responses to all...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American naturalist 1992-06, Vol.139 (6), p.1322-1343
Main Authors: Gleeson, S.K. (University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY), Tilman, D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ABSORCION DE SUBSTANCIAS NUTRITIVAS
ABSORPTION DE SUBSTANCES NUTRITIVES
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Autoecology
Biological and medical sciences
Ecological competition
Ecology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Foraging
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
MODELE
MODELOS
multiple resource limitation
Natural resources
Nitrogen
NUTRIENT UPTAKE
Plant growth
PLANTAS
PLANTE
PLANTS
Plants and fungi
Science & Technology
Soil nutrients
Soil resources
Sustainable agriculture
uptake allocation
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although optimal foraging theory applied to plant expenditure on resource uptake predicts that plant morphology and physiology should be adjusted to make all resources simultaneously limiting, two considerations make it unlikely that resource enrichment experiments will show strong responses to all nutrient additions. First, growth response to enrichment is strongly dependent on costs and demand, and detectable growth responses are only likely for "expensive" resources in high demand. Second, many resources are acquired simultaneously as a result of allocation to a single structure (e.g., various soil resources obtained by roots). This can cause the growth of an optimally foraging plant to be limited by a single resource. Altering the model to allow for more than one allocation currency (such as nitrogen and carbon) has the effect of making plant composition (and therefore demand) dependent on the supply rates of resources. This assumption can sometimes qualitatively change the above predictions, but the biological relevance of such cases is unclear. We conclude that in addition to supply and demand, the pattern of signs (positive or negative) of net correlations in uptake allocation will control the pattern of multiple limitation. Results of enrichment experiments showing limitation by only a single resource do not necessarily refute the perspective of optimal foraging.
ISSN:0003-0147
1537-5323
DOI:10.1086/285389