American Institute of Mathematical Sciences

Advanced
2008, 5(1): 101-124. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2008.5.101

The role of leaf height in plant competition for sunlight: analysis of a canopy partitioning model

Andrew L. Nevai 1, and  Richard R. Vance 2,

1. 

Department of Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
2. 

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States

Received  July 2007 Revised  October 2007 Published  January 2008

A global method of nullcline endpoint analysis is employed to de- termine the outcome of competition for sunlight between two hypothetical plant species with clonal growth form that differ solely in the height at which they place their leaves above the ground. This difference in vertical leaf placement, or canopy partitioning, produces species differences in sunlight energy capture and stem metabolic maintenance costs. The competitive interaction between these two species is analyzed by considering a special case of a canopy partitioning model (RR Vance and AL Nevai, J. Theor. Biol. 2007, 245:210-219; AL Nevai and RR Vance, J. Math. Biol. 2007, 55:105-145). Nullcline endpoint analysis is used to partition parameter space into regions within which either competitive exclusion or competitive coexistence occurs. The principal conclu- sion is that two clonal plant species which compete for sunlight and place their leaves at different heights above the ground but differ in no other way can, un- der suitable parameter values, experience stable coexistence even though they occupy an environment which varies neither over horizontal space nor through time.
Keywords: canopy structure model, light competition, plant competi- tion, mathematical model., canopy partitioning model, stable coexistence.
Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 92D25; Secondary: 34C23, 34D23, 92C80, 92D4.
Citation: Andrew L. Nevai, Richard R. Vance. The role of leaf height in plant competition for sunlight: analysis of a canopy partitioning model. Mathematical Biosciences & Engineering, 2008, 5 (1) : 101-124. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2008.5.101
[1]

Hua Nie, Sze-Bi Hsu, Jianhua Wu. Coexistence solutions of a competition model with two species in a water column. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - B, 2015, 20 (8) : 2691-2714. doi: 10.3934/dcdsb.2015.20.2691
[2]

Georg Hetzer, Tung Nguyen, Wenxian Shen. Coexistence and extinction in the Volterra-Lotka competition model with nonlocal dispersal. Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis, 2012, 11 (5) : 1699-1722. doi: 10.3934/cpaa.2012.11.1699
[3]

Yukio Kan-On. Global bifurcation structure of stationary solutions for a Lotka-Volterra competition model. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2002, 8 (1) : 147-162. doi: 10.3934/dcds.2002.8.147
[4]

Sebastián Ferrer, Francisco Crespo. Parametric quartic Hamiltonian model. A unified treatment of classic integrable systems. Journal of Geometric Mechanics, 2014, 6 (4) : 479-502. doi: 10.3934/jgm.2014.6.479
[5]

Ghendrih Philippe, Hauray Maxime, Anne Nouri. Derivation of a gyrokinetic model. Existence and uniqueness of specific stationary solution. Kinetic & Related Models, 2009, 2 (4) : 707-725. doi: 10.3934/krm.2009.2.707
[6]

Ibrahim Agyemang, H. I. Freedman. A mathematical model of an Agricultural-Industrial-Ecospheric system with industrial competition. Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis, 2009, 8 (5) : 1689-1707. doi: 10.3934/cpaa.2009.8.1689
[7]

Justin P. Peters, Khalid Boushaba, Marit Nilsen-Hamilton. A Mathematical Model for Fibroblast Growth Factor Competition Based on Enzyme. Mathematical Biosciences & Engineering, 2005, 2 (4) : 789-810. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2005.2.789
[8]

Suxia Zhang, Xiaxia Xu. A mathematical model for hepatitis B with infection-age structure. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - B, 2016, 21 (4) : 1329-1346. doi: 10.3934/dcdsb.2016.21.1329
[9]

Zhilan Feng, Robert Swihart, Yingfei Yi, Huaiping Zhu. Coexistence in a metapopulation model with explicit local dynamics. Mathematical Biosciences & Engineering, 2004, 1 (1) : 131-145. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2004.1.131
[10]

Yukio Kan-On. Bifurcation structures of positive stationary solutions for a Lotka-Volterra competition model with diffusion II: Global structure. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2006, 14 (1) : 135-148. doi: 10.3934/dcds.2006.14.135
[11]

Shuling Yan, Shangjiang Guo. Dynamics of a Lotka-Volterra competition-diffusion model with stage structure and spatial heterogeneity. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - B, 2018, 23 (4) : 1559-1579. doi: 10.3934/dcdsb.2018059
[12]

Faker Ben Belgacem. Uniqueness for an ill-posed reaction-dispersion model. Application to organic pollution in stream-waters. Inverse Problems & Imaging, 2012, 6 (2) : 163-181. doi: 10.3934/ipi.2012.6.163
[13]

Lijuan Wang, Hongling Jiang, Ying Li. Positive steady state solutions of a plant-pollinator model with diffusion. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - B, 2015, 20 (6) : 1805-1819. doi: 10.3934/dcdsb.2015.20.1805
[14]

Jun Zhou. Bifurcation analysis of a diffusive plant-wrack model with tide effect on the wrack. Mathematical Biosciences & Engineering, 2016, 13 (4) : 857-885. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2016021
[15]

Guangyu Sui, Meng Fan, Irakli Loladze, Yang Kuang. The dynamics of a stoichiometric plant-herbivore model and its discrete analog. Mathematical Biosciences & Engineering, 2007, 4 (1) : 29-46. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2007.4.29
[16]

Ya Li, Z. Feng. Dynamics of a plant-herbivore model with toxin-induced functional response. Mathematical Biosciences & Engineering, 2010, 7 (1) : 149-169. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2010.7.149
[17]

Sze-Bi Hsu, Feng-Bin Wang. On a mathematical model arising from competition of Phytoplankton species for a single nutrient with internal storage: steady state analysis. Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis, 2011, 10 (5) : 1479-1501. doi: 10.3934/cpaa.2011.10.1479
[18]

Avner Friedman, Chuan Xue. A mathematical model for chronic wounds. Mathematical Biosciences & Engineering, 2011, 8 (2) : 253-261. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2011.8.253
[19]

José Ignacio Tello. Mathematical analysis of a model of morphogenesis. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2009, 25 (1) : 343-361. doi: 10.3934/dcds.2009.25.343
[20]

Yuan Lou, Daniel Munther. Dynamics of a three species competition model. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2012, 32 (9) : 3099-3131. doi: 10.3934/dcds.2012.32.3099

2018 Impact Factor: 1.313

Tools

Metrics

  • PDF downloads (9)
  • HTML views (0)
  • Cited by (0)

Other articles
by authors

[Back to Top]

Copyright © 2020 American Institute of Mathematical Sciences