Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Reproductive Strategies

This book places the wealth of data that have been collected on plants into the unifying framework of game theory.

Tom de Jong (Author), Peter Klinkhamer (Author)

9780521528948, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 October 2005

340 pages, 110 b/w illus. 17 tables
24.4 x 17.5 x 1.8 cm, 0.54 kg

"...one of the most readable that I have read, putting many written by native English speakers to shame.... I hope that this book will be widely read..."
Janet Sprent, Bulletin of the British Ecological Society

Evolutionary biologists have produced a solid body of evidence to explain patterns of diversification, both within and among species. Recent textbooks are weighted towards studies of animals, which is surprising given that plants are ideally suited for answering evolutionary questions. Plants do not stand up and walk away and they can easily be cloned, transplanted or potted for experiments. This book aims to set the record straight by placing the wealth of data that have been collected on plants into the unifying framework of game theory. This allows a test of the theory of natural selection in some cases, while in other cases highlighting the need for additional data collection and theoretical development. It is the authors' hope that many students will take on this challenge and help the study of the evolutionary ecology of plants to develop as a mature, predictive science.

1. Optimisation models
2. Investments, returns and proportionality
3. Gain curves: efficiency factors
4. Evolutionary stable strategies: sex allocation strategies as an example
5. Size at flowering
6. Reproductive effort
7. Size and number trade-offs: the evolution of seed size
8. Sex allocation theory for partially selfing plants
9. Size dependent sex allocation
10. Sex ratios in dioecious plants
11. Outcrossing, selfing or no sex at all?
12. Heterostyly
13. Selective embryo abortion
14. Attractiveness to pollinators
15. Parent-offspring conflict
16. Intragenomic conflict
17. Group and kin selection
Appendix 1. Mathematical help
References.

Subject Areas: Plant ecology [PSTS], Botany & plant sciences [PST], Evolution [PSAJ], Ecological science, the Biosphere [PSAF], Game theory [PBUD]