Plant Root Architectural Traits Mediate a Trade-Off Between Suppression and Tolerance of Competitors.

ABSTRACT: Plants' competitive ability involves both suppressing the growth of neighbours (competitive effect) and resisting or tolerating their suppression (competitive response). Competition for below-ground resources must be related to the ability of plants to acquire these resources, which is mediated by roots and their morphology. However, the role of root architecture in the competitive ability of plants, and in the possible trade-offs among growth potential, competitive suppression and competition tolerance involved, has not been extensively studied. We used a functional-structural root model coupled with an evolutionary algorithm to simulate the evolution of root architectures in five scenarios with different plant densities. We asked (1) does selection under different intraspecific competiti

SUBMITTER: Salinas H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12827493 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature