Plant biomass production

Abstract

Plants commonly don’t grow alone. Thus, the growth of an individual leaf or an isolated plant -the topic of the previous three chapters — needs to be placed in the context of interactions, the growth of many other leaves and plants. A slowing down of one individual may be balanced by enhanced growth of another, hence only a consideration of all members of a plant community will reveal what may be the typical biomass production for a certain environment. Plants may respond in quite different ways if growing together, rather than alone.