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A dynamical, self-thinning approach to scaling vegetation systems. (English) Zbl 1083.92035

Summary: The author and M. L. Roderick [Theor. Popul. Biol. 66, 113–128 (2004)] proposed a model incorporating a self-thinning mechanism to scale between individual plants and systems of vegetation. Their generic method took a dynamical systems approach through a mass balance formulation, which facilitated theoretical analysis while maintaining simplicity for ease of application. The present paper provides an overview of this model, as well as an outline of its application and comparison with datasets. The framework embodies empirically observed characteristics of ecosystems, such as those of competing species and the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, and it also accommodates the interactions between plant components, providing a means of scaling up plant partitionings.

MSC:

92D40 Ecology
92C80 Plant biology
34A34 Nonlinear ordinary differential equations and systems
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