Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 370, Issue 6521, Pages 1197-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aba9877
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Princeton University May Fellowship in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation [GBMF2550.06]
- FAPESP [ICTP-SAIFR 2016/01343-7, 2019/24433-0, 2019/05523-8]
- Instituto Serrapilheira [Serra-1911-31200]
- Simons Foundation
- Spanish Ministry for Science, Innovation and Universities (COMEDIAS grant) [CGL2017-83170-R]
- Princeton Environmental Institute Carbon Mitigation Initiative
- Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) [16/01343-7] Funding Source: FAPESP
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Plant roots determine carbon uptake, survivorship, and agricultural yield and represent a large proportion of the world's vegetation carbon pool. Study of belowground competition, unlike aboveground shoot competition, is hampered by our inability to observe roots. We developed a consumer-resource model based in game theory that predicts the root density spatial distribution of individual plants and tested the model predictions in a greenhouse experiment. Plants in the experiment reacted to neighbors as predicted by the model's evolutionary stable equilibrium, by both overinvesting in nearby roots and reducing their root foraging range. We thereby provide a theoretical foundation for belowground allocation of carbon by vegetation that reconciles seemingly contradictory experimental results such as root segregation and the tragedy of the commons in plant roots.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available