The Dynamics Of Plant Populations: Does The History Of Individuals Matter?
Abstract. Historical events have been used to explain a wide range of phenomena including geographical distributions of species, community diversity, and population structure. At the level of individuals, historical effects in which past conditions influence future performance are particularly likely to occur in long-lived organisms that store resources between seasons and that form organs months or years before their elaboration. Such carryover mechanisms have been documented in several perennial plant species, but the implications for population processes are poorly known. In this study, I examine how the history of individuals influences their future performance, population dynamics, and life cycle structure in the long-lived herb Lathyrus vernus. Overall effects of plant history on population dynamics, in terms of growth rate, reproductive values, stable stage distribution, and elasticities, are examined by comparing an ordinary first-order matrix model with a second-order matrix m
