1. Please switch to ‘slide show’ mode (press F5)

2. This is a presentation by Titles A model involving self-assembling modular plants Roderick Hunt, Ric Colasanti & Andrew Askew University of Sheffield It is all about SAM

3. Community image This is what a community of virtual plants looks like Contrasting tones show patches of resource depletion

4. CSR type, frame 1 This is a single propagule of a virtual plant It is about to grow in a resource-rich above- and below-ground environment

5. ditto f. 2

6. ditto f. 3

7. ditto f. 4

8. ditto f. 5

9. ditto f. 6

10. ditto f. 7

11. ditto f. 8

12. ditto f. 9

13. ditto f. 10

14. ditto f. 11

15. ditto f. 12

16. ditto f. 13

17. ditto f. 14

18. ditto f. 15

19. ditto f. 16

20. ditto f. 17

21. ditto f. 18

22. ditto f. 19

23. ditto f. 20 The plant has produced abundant growth above- and below-ground and zones of resource depletion have appeared

24. Binary tree diagram Above-ground binary tree base module Below-ground binary tree base module Above-ground array Below-ground array Above-ground binary tree ( = shoot system) Below-ground binary tree ( = root system) A branching module An end module Each plant is structured like this This is only a diagram, not a painting !

25. Water and nutrients from below-ground The branching (parent) modules can pass resources to any adjoining modules Explanation The end-modules capture resources: Light and carbon dioxide from above-ground In this way whole plants can grow

26. The virtual plants interact with their environment (and with their neighbours) just like real ones do They possess most of the properties of real individuals and populations Explanation For example …

27. S-shaped growth curves

28. Older plant, low nutrient Partitioning towards the resource-poorer half of the environment

29. Allometric coefficients Maintaining a functional equilibrium above-and below-ground

30. Older plant, asymmetric nutrients Foraging towards resources in a heterogeneous environment

31. Dense population And when many plants are grown together in a dense population …

32. Self-thinning … they exhibit self-thinning but as the plants are 2-dimensional the thinning slope is not –3/2

33. All of these plants have the same specification ( modular rulebase ) But this specification can easily be changed if we want the plants to behave differently… Explanation

34. For example, we can recreate J P Grime’s system of C-S-R plant functional types For this, the specifications we need to change are those controlling morphology, physiology and reproductive behaviour … Explanation

35. Modular rulebase

36. With three levels possible in each of three traits, 27 simple functional types could be constructed However, we model only 7 types ; the other 20 include Darwinian Demons that do not respect evolutionary tradeoffs Explanation

37. Let us see some competition between different types of plant Initially we will use only two types … Explanation

38. R-CSR-R, frame 1 Small size, rapid growth and fast reproduction Medium size, moderately fast in growth and reproduction

39. ditto f. 2

40. ditto f. 3

41. ditto f. 4

42. ditto f. 5

43. ditto f. 6

44. ditto f. 7

45. ditto f. 8

46. ditto f. 9 ( Red enters its 2 nd generation)

47. ditto f. 10

48. ditto f. 11

49. ditto f. 12

50. ditto f. 13

51. ditto f. 14

52. ditto f. 15

53. ditto f. 16

54. ditto f. 17

55. ditto f. 18

56. ditto f. 19

57. ditto f. 20 White has won !

58. Now let us see if white always wins This time, its competitor is rather different … Explanation

59. CSR-C-CSR, frame 1 Medium size, moderately fast in growth and reproduction Large size, very fast growing, slow reproduction

60. ditto f.2

61. ditto f.3

62. ditto f.4

63. ditto f.5

64. ditto f.6

65. ditto f.7

66. ditto f.8

67. ditto f.9

68. ditto f.10

69. ditto f.11

70. ditto f.12

71. ditto f.13

72. ditto f.14

73. ditto f.15

74. ditto f.16

75. ditto f.17

76. ditto f.18

77. ditto f.19

78. ditto f.20

79. ditto f.21

80. ditto f.22

81. ditto f.23

82. The huge blue type has out-competed both of the white plants, both above- and below-ground And the simulation has run out of space … Explanation

83. ditto f.23 again

84. So competition can be demonstrated realistically … … but most real communities involve more than two types of plant Explanation

85. We need seven functional types to cover the entire range of variation shown by herbaceous plant life To a first approximation, these seven types can simulate complex community processes very realistically Explanation

86. For example, an equal mixture of all seven types can be grown together … … in an environment which has high levels of resource, both above- and below-ground Explanation

87. 7 types, high nutrient, f.1

88. ditto f.2

89. ditto f.3

90. ditto f.4

91. ditto f.5

92. ditto f.6

93. ditto f.7

94. ditto f.8

95. ditto f.9

96. ditto f.10

97. ditto f.11

98. ditto f.12

99. ditto f.13

100. ditto f.14

101. ditto f.15

102. ditto f.16

103. ditto f.17

104. ditto f.18

105. ditto f.19

106. ditto f.20

107. The blue type has eliminated almost everything except white and green types And the simulation has almost run out of space again … Explanation

108. ditto f.20 again

109. Now we grow the equal mixture of all seven types again … … but this time the environment has low levels of mineral nutrient resource, as indicated by the many grey cells Explanation

110. 7 types, low nutrient, f.1

111. ditto f.2

112. ditto f.3

113. ditto f.4

114. ditto f.5

115. ditto f.6

116. ditto f.7

117. ditto f.8

118. ditto f.9

119. ditto f.10

120. ditto f.11

121. ditto f.12

122. ditto f.13 (a gap has appeared here)

123. ditto f.14

124. ditto f.15 ( red tries to colonize)

125. ditto f.16

126. ditto f.17

127. ditto f.18

128. ditto f.19

129. ditto f.20 (but is unsuccessful)

130. ditto f.21

131. ditto f.22

132. White, green and yellow finally predominate … … blue is nowhere to be seen … Explanation … and total biomass is much reduced

133. ditto f.22 again

134. Environmental gradients can be simulated by increasing resource levels in steps Explanation Whittaker-type niches then appear for contrasting plant types within these gradients

135. Whittaker-type gradient (types)

136. Next we grow the equal mixture of all seven types again … … but this time under an environmental gradient of increasing mineral nutrient resource Explanation

137. Stress-driven hump Greatest biodiversity is at intermediate stress

138. Now, environmental disturbance can be defined as ‘removal of biomass after it has been created’ Explanation For example, grazing, cutting, burning and trampling are all forms of disturbance

139. In our model, ‘trampling’ can be applied simply by removing shoot material from certain sizes of patch at certain intervals of time and in a certain number of places Explanation Other forms of disturbance can be simulated by varying each of these factors

140. So we grow the equal mixture of all seven types again … … but this time under an environmental gradient of increasing ‘trampling’ disturbance Explanation

141. Disturbance-driven hump Greatest biodiversity is at intermediate disturbance … … but the final number of types is low

142. Environmental stress and disturbance can, of course, be applied together Explanation This can be done in all forms and combinations

143. Again we grow the equal mixture of all seven types … … but with one of seven levels of stress and seven levels of disturbance in all factorial combinations Explanation

144. Productivity-driven hump Greatest biodiversity is at intermediate productivity

145. The biomass-driven humpbacked relationship is one of the highest-level properties that real plant communities possess Yet it emerges from the model solely because of the resource-capturing activity of modules in the self-assembling plants Explanation

146. Productivity-driven hump

147. (Dissolve to black)