CHEM 1000H Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Methyl Jasmonate, Crop Yield, Seed Predation

• School: Trent University
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: CHEM 1000H
• Professor: Andrew Vreugdenhil

Document Summary

Bigger is better for plants, but it can depend on traits such as allocation patterns and growth rates competition can be size-symmetric (relationship between size and competitive advantage) or size-asymmetric (non-linear relationship) Belowground competition tends to be size-symmetric (bigger the roots the more space captured) Environmental variation and competition traits can be competitive in one environment but not in another if environment changes traits are needed to be competitive. High genetic variation allows species to persist in more variable environments. Phenotypic plasticity also allow species to adapt to environmental variation invasive species tend to have both. Yield loss caused by the presence of weeds can be rapid and irreversible, so there is a critical point where you want to kill the weeds to ensure there are very few weeds/yield loss. Time of seedling emergence and density early emergence tends to convey a competitive advantage time of weed emergence relative to the crop is more important than density.