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Is separating resource competition from allelopathy realistic?

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Abstract

Allelopathy and resource competition have often been suggested to explain plant-plant interference. Many studies have attempted to separate these two mechanisms of interference to demonstrate either as a probable cause of an observed growth pattern. We, however, are of the opinion that separating allelopathy from resource competition is essentially impossible in natural systems. Furthermore, any experimental design to separate allelopathy and resource competition will create conditions that will never occur in nature. In this article, the ecological interaction between allelopathy and resource competition in natural systems is discussed.

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  1. Department of Botany, University of Delhi, 110007, Delhi, India

    Inderjit

  2. Department of Botany, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, WA, USA

    Roger del Moral

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Inderjit, del Moral, R. Is separating resource competition from allelopathy realistic?. Bot. Rev 63, 221–230 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02857949

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