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Shiro TSUYUZAKI
Plant community ecology / Environmental conservation

Mount Usu / Sarobetsu post-mined peatland
From left: Crater basin in 1986 and 2006. Cottongrass / Daylily

(Update on December 30 2010)

Grime's triangle

Grime's triangle

The combination of three strategies of plants:

Productivity
LowHigh
Disturbance High Ruderals (R)
Low Stress tolerators (S) Competitors (C)
Competitors (C)

Plants have high competition ability when low stress and disturbance are given. The high competition ability is evaluated by fast growth rate and high productivity.

Stress tolerators (S)

Plants adapt to high stress and low disturbance, by slow growth rates, long-lived leaves, and high nutrient retention rate. These are represented by species growing in alpine, arid, or sprpentine habitats.

Ruderals (R)

Species favor disturbance with low stress, and are fast-growing. Plants that have adapted this strategy are often found colonizing recently disturbed land, and are often annuals.

CSR
Fig. Grime's triangle (Grime 1979).

Succession
succession
Fig. successional trajectories explained by Grime's triangle. Initial condition of productivity is important for those trajectories.

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References

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