Predicting evolutionarily stable strategies from functional responses of Sonoran Desert annuals to precipitation.

ABSTRACT: For many decades, researchers have studied how plants use bet-hedging strategies to insure against unpredictable, unfavourable conditions. We improve upon earlier analyses by explicitly accounting for how variable precipitation affects annual plant species' bet-hedging strategies. We consider how the survival rates of dormant seeds (in a 'seed bank') interact with precipitation responses to influence optimal germination strategies. Specifically, we incorporate how response to resource availability (i.e. the amount of offspring (seeds) generated per plant in response to variation in desert rainfall) influences the evolution of germination fractions. Using data from 10 Sonoran Desert annual plants, we develop models that explicitly include these responses to model fitness as a function of pr

SUBMITTER: Cuello WS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6367162 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature