Abstract
Vegetation dynamics is a stochastic process of species replacement after disturbance. It occurs because individual species are limited by general constraints and trade-offs. As these constraints and trade-offs are becoming better known, we understand more about the relationships between disturbance dynamics, species pools, and vegetation dynamics. This paper provides a summary of recent work on plant scaling and ecological trade-offs, and explores its implications for vegetation dynamics. Those aspects of succession that are predictable — given the local species complement — can be understood as consequences of these general patterns and constraints. Several are explored in this paper. The inherently stochastic nature of the process derives from the disturbance dynamics that forces it, from the sampling processes that are responsible for selecting potential invaders, and from the chance processes involved in species interactions. The dynamics of species that invade established communities is the least understood but potentially the most crucial aspect of vegetation dynamics. The relation of community invasion to gap creation and to scaling constraints is briefly discussed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Abbreviations
- RGR:
-
Relative growth rate.
References
Bazzaz, F.A. 1975. Plant species diversity in old-field successional ecosystems in southern Illinois. Ecology 56: 465–488.
Bazzaz, F.A. 1996. Plants in Changing Environments. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.
Bazzaz, F.A. 1997. Allocation of resources in plants: state of the science and critical questions. In: F. A. Bazzaz and J. Grace (eds.), Plant Resource Allocation. Academic Press, San Diego. pp. 1–37.
Bazazz, F.A. and J. Grace, (eds.) 1997. Plant Resource Allocation. Academic Press, New York.
Begon, M., J.L. Harper and C.L. Townsend. 1996. Ecology: Individuals, Populations and Communities. 3rd. Blackwell, Oxford.
Boggs, C.A. 1997. Resource allocation in variable environments. In: F. A. Bazzaz and J. Grace (eds.), Plant Resource Allocation. Academic Press, San Diego. pp. 73–92.
Bond, W.J. and B.S. van Wilgen. 1996. Fire and Plants. Chapman and Hall, London.
Brown, J.H. and G.B. West (eds.). 2000. Scaling in Biology. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.
Chapin, F.S. 1993. Functional role of growth forms in ecosystem and global processes. In: J. R. Ehleringer and C.B. Field (eds.). Scaling Physiological Processes. Academic Press, San Diego. pp. 287–312.
Chambers, J.Q., N. Higuchi and J.P. Schimel. 1998. Ancient trees in Amazonia. Nature 391: 135–136.
Charnov, E.L. 1993. Life History Invariants: Some Explorations of Symmetry in Evolutionary Ecology. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.
Clark, J.S., M. Silman, R. Kern, E. Macklin and J. HilleRisLambers. 1999. Seed dispersal near and far: patterns across temperate and tropical forests. Ecology 80: 1475–1494.
Clements, F.E. 1916. Plant Succession: An Analysis of the Development of Vegetation. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publ. No. 242.
Drury, W.H. 1998. Chance and Change. Univ. California Press, Berkeley.
Drury, W.H. and Nisbet, I.C.T. 1973. Succession. J. Arnold Arbor. 54: 331–368.
Enquist, B.J., J.H. Brown and G.B. West. 1998. Allometric scaling of plant energetics andpopulation density. Nature 395: 163–165.
Enquist, B.J., G.B. West, E.L. Charnov and J.H. Brown. 1999. Allometric scaling of production and life-history variation in vascular plants. Nature 401: 907–911.
Gleason, H.A. 1926. The individualistic concept of the plant association. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 53: 1–20.
Gleason, H.A. 1927. Further views on the succession concept. Ecology 8: 299–326.
Gleeson, S.K. and D. Tilman. 1994. Plant allocation, growth rate and successional status. Func. Ecol. 8: 543–550.
Grime, J.P. 1977. Plant Strategies and Vegetation Processes. Wiley, Chichester.
Hengeveld, R. 1989. Dynamics of Biological Invasions. Chapman & Hall, London.
Horn, H.S. 1971. The Adaptive Geometry of Trees. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton.
Kimmins, J.P. 1997. Forest Ecology. 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Körner, C. (1991) Some often overlooked plant characteristics as determinants of plant growth: a reconsideration. Func. Ecol. 5: 162–173.
Lambers, H., F.S. Chapin and T.L. Pons. 1998. Plant Physiological Ecology. Springer, New York.
Lawton, J.H. and K.C. Brown. 1986. The population and community ecology of invading insects. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. B 314: 607–617.
Lerdau, M. and J. Gershenzon. 1997. Allocation theory and chemical defense. In: F. A. Bazzaz and J. Grace (eds.), Plant Resource Allocation. Academic Press, San Diego. pp. 265–277.
Levine, J.M. and C.M. D’Antonio. 1999. Elton revisited: a review of evidence linking diversity and invasibility. Oikos 87: 15–26.
Lodge, D.M. 1993. Biological invasions: lessons for ecology. Trends Ecol. Evol. 8: 133–137.
Loehle, C. 1988. Tree life histories: the role of defenses. Can. J. For. Res. 18: 209–222.
Lonsdale, W.M. 1999. Global patterns of plant invasions and the concept of invasibility. Ecology 80: 1522–1536.
Mcintosh, R.P 1999. The succession of succession: a lexical chronology. Bull. Ecol. Soc. Am. 80: 256–265.
Miles, J. 1979. Vegetation Dynamics. Chapman & Hall, London.
Niklas, K.J. 1993. The allometry of plant reproductive biomass and stem diameter. Am. J. Bot. 80: 461–467.
Niklas, K.J. 1994. Plant Allometry. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.
Niklas, K.J. 1997. The Evolutionary Biology of Plants. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.
Odum, E.P 1953. Fundamentals of Ecology. Saunders, Philadelphia.
Orlóci, L. and Orlóci, M. 1988. On recovery, Markov chains, and canonical analysis. Ecology 69: 1260–1265.
Poorter, H. and R. Villar. 1997. The fate of acquired carbon in plants: chemical composition and construction costs. In: F. A. Bazzaz and J. Grace (eds.), Plant Resource Allocation. Academic Press, San Diego. pp. 39–72.
Poorter, L. 1999. Growth responses of 15 rain-forest tree species to a light gradient: the relative importance of morphological and physiological traits. Func. Ecol. 13: 396–410.
Poorter, L. and M. Werger. 1999. Light environment, sapling architecture, and leaf display in six rain forest tree species. Am. J. Bot. 86: 1464–1473.
Reekie, E.G. 1997. Trade-offs between reproduction and growth influence time of reproduction. In: F. A. Bazzaz and J. Grace (eds.), Plant Resource Allocation. Academic Press, San Diego. pp. 191–209.
Sibly, R.M. and J.F. Vincent. 1997. Optimality approaches to resource allocation in woody tissues. In: F. A. Bazzaz and J. Grace (eds.), Plant Resource Allocation. Academic Press, San Diego. pp. 143–159.
Silvertown, J.W. and J. Lovett Doust. 1993. Plant Population Biology. Blackwell, London.
Stearns, S.C. 1992. The Evolution of Life Histories. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.
Stiles, E.W. 1992. Animals as seed dispersers. In: M. Fenner (ed.), Seeds: The Ecology of Regeneration in Plant Communities. CAB International. Wallingford, U.K. pp. 87–104.
Tilman, D. 1988. Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton.
Tilman, D. 1999. The ecological consequences of changes in biodiversity: a search for general principles. Ecology 80: 1455–1474.
van Hulst, R. 1988. Invasion models of vegetation dynamics. Vegetatio 69: 123–131.
van Hulst, R. 1992. From population dynamics to community dynamics: modelling succession as a species replacement process. In: D. C. Glenn-Lewin (ed.), Succession. Chapman & Hall, London. pp. 188–214.
van Hulst, R. 1997. Vegetation change as a stochastic process. Coenoses 12: 131–140.
Vitousek, P.M. 1994. Beyond global warming: ecology and global change. Ecology 75: 1861–1876.
West, G.B., J.H. Brown and B.J. Enquist. 1997. A general model for the origin of allometric scaling laws in biology. Science 276: 122–126.
West, G.B., J.H. Brown and B.J. Enquist. 1999. A general model for the structure and allometry of plant vascular systems. Nature 400: 664–667.
Westoby, M., E. Jurado and M. Leishman. 1992. Comparative evolutionary ecology of seed size. Trends Ecol. Evol. 7: 368–372.
White, P.S. and S.T.A. Pickett. 1985. Natural disturbance and patch dynamics: an introduction. In: S. T A. Pickett and P.S. White (eds.), The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics. Academic Press, New York. pp. 3–13.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
van Hulst, R. Vegetation dynamics and plant constraints: separating generalities and specifics. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 1, 5–12 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1556/ComEc.1.2000.1.3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/ComEc.1.2000.1.3