Abstract
When individual plants grow in an uncrowded population there is little or no mortality from competition. In a diagram displaying the logarithm of the volume of an average plant against the logarithm of population density, growth trajectories therefore are nearly vertical. But as plants begin to fill up the available space, crowding commences, and the ensuing mortality reduces population density and causes the growth trajectories to bend off towards the ordinate (Figs. 1, 2). As plants grow, the data points representing consecutive growth stages of survivors in a log-log diagram lie along this thinning line, from a high population density and small average volume per plant at lower right, upward and leftward toward the ordinate (Figs. 1, 2).
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© 1988 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Norberg, R.Å. (1988). Self-Thinning of Plant Populations Dictated by Packing Density and Individual Growth Geometry and Relationships Between Animal Population Density and Body Mass Governed by Metabolic Rate. In: Ebenman, B., Persson, L. (eds) Size-Structured Populations. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74001-5_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74001-5_17
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