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6 results for “self-thinning”
Data from: Density-dependent energy use contributes to the self-thinning relationship of cohorts
In resource-limited populations, an increase in average body size can occur only with a decline in abundance. This is known as self-thinning, and the decline in abundance in food-limited populations is considered proportional to the scaling of metabolism with body mass. This popular hypothesis may be inaccurate, because self-thinning populations can also experience density-dependent competition, which could alter their energy use beyond the predictions of metabolic scaling. This study tested whether density-dependent competition has an energetic role in self-thinning, by manipulating the abundance of the fish Macquaria novemaculeata and tank size to partition the effects of competition from metabolic scaling. We found that self-thinning can be density dependent and that changes in intraspecific competition may be more influential than metabolic scaling on self-thinning relationships. The energetic mechanism we propose is that density-dependent competition causes variation in the allocation of energy to growth, which alters the energetic efficiency of self-thinning cohorts. The implication is that food-limited cohorts and populations with competitive strategies that encourage fast-growing individuals will have less body mass at equilibrium and higher mortality rates. This finding sheds light on the processes structuring populations and can be used to explain inconsistencies in the mass-abundance scaling of assemblages and communities (the energetic-equivalence rule).
Data from: Facilitation among plants can accelerate density-dependent mortality and steepen self-thinning lines in stressful environments
The speed and slope of plant self-thinning are all affected by plant-plant interactions across environmental gradients. Possible mechanisms driving the self-thinning dynamics include the relative strength of root vs. shoot competition, and the interplay between competition and facilitation. Although these mechanisms often act in concert, their relative importance has not yet been fully explored. We used both a one-layer and a two-layer zone-of-influence (ZOI) model to examine how competition and facilitation drive self-thinning across stress gradients. As a development of the traditional ZOI model, the two-layer version explicitly models shoot and root growth and neighbor interactions, and thus the overall size-symmetry of competition is regulated by the relative strength of root vs. shoot competition. One-layer model simulations revealed that increasingly asymmetric competition accelerated thinning, and steepened (slope ranged from about -1 to -4/3) and lowered self-thinning lines. Stress slowed down density-dependent mortality considerably when competition was not completely symmetric. Stress significantly decreased the self-thinning intercept, while facilitation simply counteracted stress effects. Both stress and facilitation showed little effect on the slope. In the two-layer model, both stress and facilitation affected mortality in the same way as in the one-layer version when competition was not completely symmetric. Different from the one-layer model, the two-layer version showed that the effects of stress and facilitation on the self-thinning slope were mediated by the asymmetry of competition. As stress increased, the overall asymmetry of competition shifted from asymmetric to symmetric due to increased relative strength of root competition. High stress thus dramatically flattened self-thinning lines, whereas the inclusion of facilitation counteracted stress and led to steeper self-thinning lines. Our two-layer model is based on the current knowledge of plant-plant interactions, and better represents ecological realities. It can help elaborate experiments for testing the role of competition and facilitation in driving plant population dynamics.
Data from: Metabolic theory predicts animal self-thinning
1. The Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE) predicts observed patterns in ecology based on metabolic rates of individuals. The theory is influential but also criticized for a lack of firm empirical evidence confirming MTE's quantitative predictions of processes, e.g. outcome of competition, at population or community level. 2. Self-thinning is a well-known population level phenomenon among plants, but a much less studied phenomenon in animal populations and no consensus exists on what a universal thinning slope for animal populations might be, or if it exists. 3. The goal of this study was to use animal self-thinning as a tool to test population-level predictions from MTE, by analyzing (i) if self-thinning can be induced in populations of house crickets (Acheta domesticus) and (ii) if the resulting thinning trajectories can be predicted from metabolic theory, using estimates of the species-specific metabolic rate of A. domesticus 4. I performed a laboratory study where the growth of A. domesticus was followed, from hatching until emergence as adults, in 71 cohorts of five different starting densities. 5. 96% of all cohorts in the three highest starting densities showed evidence of self-thinning, with estimated thinning slopes in general being remarkably close to that expected under metabolic constraints: A cross-sectional analysis of all data showing evidence of self-thinning produced an OLS slope of -1.11, exactly that predicted from specific metabolic allometry of Acheta domesticus. This result is furthermore supported by longitudinal analyses, allowing for independent responses within cohorts, producing a mean OLS slope across cohorts of -1.13 and a fixed effect LMEM slope of -1.09. Sensitivity analysis showed that these results are robust to how the criterion for on-going self-thinning was defined. Finally, also as predicted by metabolic theory, temperature had a negative effect on the thinning intercept, producing an estimate of the activation energy identical to that suggested by MTE. 6. This study demonstrates a direct link between the metabolic rate of individuals and a population-level ecological process and as such provides strong support for research that aims to integrate body mass, via its effect on metabolism, consumption and competition, into models of populations and communities.
Data from: Facilitation among plants can accelerate density-dependent mortality and steepen self-thinning lines in stressful environments
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Data from: Metabolic theory predicts animal self-thinning
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Data from: Density-dependent energy use contributes to the self-thinning relationship of cohorts
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