Sexual and vegetative reproduction of Hieracium pilosella L. under competition and disturbance: a grid-based simulation model.

ABSTRACT: We used a spatially explicit simulation model to examine the relative importance of vegetative and sexual reproduction in Hieracium pilosella L. Based on an understanding of the complex life cycle of this species and on data from in situ population dynamics in a calcareous grassland in NW Switzerland, we simulated growth and the relative contribution of clonal reproduction by stolons and reproduction by seeds across a gradient of increasing soil fertility. Competition by a clonal grass resulted in nearly complete exclusion of H. pilosella from the more fertile part of the simulation plot. Under low soil fertility, when grass could not survive, H. pilosella largely persisted by vegetatively produced rosettes. This pattern of a sharp separation of both species was shifted slightly in favour

SUBMITTER: Winkler E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4233885 | biostudies-literature | 2002 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature