Plant-to-plant direct competition for belowground resource in an overlapping depletion zone

In response to limited availability of soil resources in basal root zone, plant extends its roots into nearby resource-rich zones to fulfill essential resource demands for survival and reproduction. This root proliferation into that enriched zones occupied by other plants constitutes interplant overlapping rooting zones and thereby the overlapping depletion zones, causing reduction in resource uptake by neighboring plants. By incorporating this mechanism into the classic resource competition model, we study interplant direct competition through their rooting system in an overlapping depletion zone. The model results indicate an extension of Tilman’s R* rule that has already been proved true when plants compete indirectly through their effect on shared resources. The results reveal that plant’s direct competitive ability (i.e., the ability to occupy an overlapping depletion zone by excluding others) can be characterized by its R*-value, where a best competitor having lowest R*-value excludes others from an overlapping zone and occupies the zone by depleting the resource level to the lowest as in its non-overlapping depletion zone. By analyzing the model, we find a suite of traits that confers R* variation among directly competing plants. This suite of traits would be a useful proxy measure for R* that do not necessarily require to establish equilibrium field monoculture—a requirement for R* measurement in the field.

Effects of grain size on landscape patterns in mineral resource zones:a case study of Wu’an,China

A mineral resource zone,rich in resources and energy,is intensively developed and disturbed by human activities,which causes an obvious change of landscapes.Taking Wu’an of Hebei Province,China,as a case study,this paper extracts landscape information of mineral resource zones through overlapping mineral resources distribution map and landscape pattern map.And then,various landscape indices are selected for analyzing the effects of grain size(30,60,90,120,150,180,210,240,270 and 300 m)on landscape patterns.Due to different kinds of landscape information transmitted by indices,the changing trends vary with the increase of grain sizes.Accordingly the landscape indices are classified into three types of effects:disturbance,continuity and sustainability,and each type of effect has its own optimal range for grain sizes.Then the optimal range of grain size on landscape patterns in mineral resource zones is gained through a comparison of the effects in various grain sizes of landscape indices.The best first domain of scale covers 30-90 m,with a suitable grain size of 30-60 m before intensive mining and a suitable grain size of 60-90 m after intensive mining.Besides,the suitable grain sizes for reflecting disturbance,continuity and sustainability before intensive mining are 30-60,30-60 and 30-90 m,respectively,however,the sizes are changed to 60-90,60-90 and 30-90 m,respectively,after intensive mining.The results are helpful for rational land use and optimal landscape allocation.