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AOBPreview originally published online on April 3, 2003
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Annals of Botany 91: 795-805, 2003
© 2003 Annals of Botany Company

Size-Dependent Growth and the Development Of Inequality in Maize, Sunflower and Soybean

C. R. C. VEGA1 and V. O. SADRAS2

1 Facultad de Agronomía, UBA, Av. San Martín 4453, Buenos Aires, Argentina and 2 CSIRO Land & Water, Waite Campus, PMB 2 Glen Osmond 5065, Australia

* For correspondence. E-mail clavega{at}mdp.edu.ar

Received: 15 October 2002; Returned for revision 19 December 2002; Accepted 4 February 2003    Published electronically: 3 April 2003

Links were investigated between allometry of plant growth and dynamics of size structure of well-fertilized, irrigated crops of soybean (Glycine max L.), sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) grown at standard plant-population densities (D), as in commercial crops (D = 30, 6 and 8·5 plants m–2, respectively), and at high densities (2D). Patterns of size-dependent growth of shoot and seed mass accumulation were distinctly different among species. In soybean and sunflower, non-linear relationships between size and subsequent growth led to strong hierarchical populations in terms of both shoot and seed biomass. Curvilinear (soybean) and sigmoid (sunflower) size-dependent growth determined strongly asymmetrical (soybean) and bimodal (sunflower) frequency distributions of shoot biomass indicating predominantly size asymmetrical competition among individuals. In comparison, a lower plant-to-plant variation coupled with a typical linear allometry of growth to plant size indicated symmetrical two-sided plant interference in maize. Despite the weak development of hierarchies in shoot biomass, a strong inequality in reproductive output developed in crowded populations of maize indicating an apparent breakage of reproductive allometry.

Key words: Helianthus annuus L., Zea maize L., Glycine max L. Merrill, size inequality, reproductive allometry, bimodality, mode of competition, asymmetry, barrenness, growth functions.


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