Author(s)

M. Yokozawa

Abstract

To explore how a stable size hierarchical structure may emerge in plant com- munities, a simple competition model for plant individuals with two types of competition mode, asymmetric and symmetric, is studied numerically and theoretically. The model incorporates size-ratio dependent interactions between individuals, which reflects the sensitivity of resource gain to differ- ences in individual biomass at the seedling stage. From numerical simula- tions, the stability of the multi-layered size structure is determined by the relationships between the number of population, the degree of competitive asymmetry and the potential maximum relative growth rate (i.e. seedling's relative growth rate) as follows: (1) As the number of population and/or the degree of competitive asymmetry increases [decreases], multi-layered [m

Keywords