Abstract
We present a theoretical analysis that considers the phenotypic trait of compensatory growth ability in a context of population dynamics. Our model depicts a system of three interactors: herbivores and two different plant types referred to as ordinary and compensating. The compensating plant type has the ability to increase its intrinsic rate of biomass increase as a response to damage. This compensatory growth ability is maintained at the expense of a reduced growth rate in the absence of damage, where the ordinary plant type has the higher growth rate. Analysis of this system suggests that, even though a compensatory capacity of this kind will not imply an increase in equilibrium plant density, it will give a competitive advantage in relation to other plants, in the presence of a sufficiently efficient herbivore. Invasion of compensating plants into a population of non-compensating plants is facilitated by a high compensatory growth ability and a high intrinsic rate of plant biomass increase. Conversely, an ordinary plant can invade and outcompete a compensating plant when the herbivore is characterised by a relatively low attack rate, and/or when plant intrinsic growth rate is decreased.
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Järemo, J., Palmqvist, E. Plant compensatory growth: a conquering strategy in plant–herbivore interactions?. Evolutionary Ecology 15, 91–102 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013899006473
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013899006473