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Life History of Colonizing Plants: Some Demographic, Genetic, and Physiological Features

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Ecology of Biological Invasions of North America and Hawaii

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 58))

Abstract

The term “colonizer” has come to mean different things to different biologists. In a general sense all species are colonizers, as they all must become established in sites in which to grow and reproduce. Agriculturalists have equated colonizers with undesirable and, in many cases, nonnative species that affect agroeco-systems detrimentally by reducing the growth and yield of the desired species. In this agronomic sense the terms colonizers, “weeds,” and often “aliens,” are synonymous. Theoretical ecologists usually think of colonizers as those species whose disseminules travel relatively long distances, and arrive in unoccupied or presumably incompletely occupied habitats where they subsequently interact with other species present or become locally extinct [e.g., the island biogeographic model of Mac Arthur and Wilson (1967)].

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Authors
  1. F. A. Bazzaz
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, 94305, Stanford, California, USA

    Harold A. Mooney  & James A. Drake  & 

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© 1986 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Bazzaz, F.A. (1986). Life History of Colonizing Plants: Some Demographic, Genetic, and Physiological Features. In: Mooney, H.A., Drake, J.A. (eds) Ecology of Biological Invasions of North America and Hawaii. Ecological Studies, vol 58. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4988-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4988-7_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-97153-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-4988-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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