Importance of starting points in heterogeneous environments: interactions between two clonal plants with contrasting spatial architectures

Aims Plants can benefit from heterogeneous environments via disproportionately increasing resource harvesting in resource-rich patches.Their initial growing positions with respect to resource patches may thus have important influences on their performance and relative competitive ability.Such impacts may differ between species with contrasting spatial architectures.However,the potential influence of initial growing positions in heterogeneous environment on plant growth and competition has largely been ignored.Methods We grew the phalanx plant Carex neurocarpa and the guerrilla plant Bolboschoenus planiculmis alone or in competition in a heterogeneous environment consisting of high-and low-nutrient soil patches.In treatments without competition,one ramet of each species was grown in either a high-or a low-nutrient patch in the heterogeneous environment.In treatments with competition,a ramet of the target species was grown in either a high-or a low-nutrient patch,and a ramet of the competitor species was grown in the same patch as the target species or an adjacent patch with a different nutrient level.Important Findings Without competition C.neurocarpa produced more biomass and ramets when initially grown in a high-nutrient patch than when initially grown in a low-nutrient patch.With competition,these differences disappeared.Consequently,competitive intensity on C.neurocarpa was higher when it initially grew in a high-nutrient patch than when it initially grew in a low-nutrient patch.These impacts were independent of the initial position of its competitor.By contrast,the initial positions of B.planiculmis did not influence its growth or competitive response.Therefore,in heterogeneous environments,initial growing positions of clonal plants may influence their performance in competition-free environments and may also affect their relative competitive ability,and these effects may depend on spatial architecture of the plants.

Asymptotic behavior of the principal eigenvalue and the basic reproduction ratio for periodic patch models

This paper is devoted to the study of the asymptotic behavior of the principal eigenvalue and the basic reproduction ratio associated with periodic population models in a patchy environment for small and large dispersal rates.We first deal with the eigenspace corresponding to the zero eigenvalue of the connectivity matrix.Then we investigate the limiting profile of the principal eigenvalue of an associated periodic eigenvalue problem as the dispersal rate goes to zero and infinity,respectively.We further establish the asymptotic behavior of the basic reproduction ratio in the case of small and large dispersal rates.Finally,we apply these results to a periodic Ross-Macdonald patch model.

Dynamical analysis of an SIS epidemic model with migration and residence time

Migration can be ciivided into temporary and permanent migration,which is related to the residence time of people in the patch,thus we consider an SIS epidemic model with migration and residence time in a patchy environment.If R0≤1,the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable and the disease dies out.With the same migration rate of susceptible and infectious individuals and without disease-induced death,when R0>1,the endemic equilibrium is unique and globally asymptotically stable.Numerical simulations are carried out to show the effects of residence time and the migration rate on disease prevalence.