Patch size and distance: modelling habitat structure from the perspective of clonal growth

This study considers the spatial structure of patchy habitats from the perspective of plants that forage for resources by clonal growth. Modelling is used in order to compare two basic strategies, which differ in the response of the plant to a patch boundary. The 'avoiding plant' (A) never grows out of a good (resource-rich) patch into a bad (resource-poor) region, because the parent ramet withdraws its subsidy from the offspring. The 'entering plant' (E) always crosses the boundary, as the offspring is subsidized at the expense of the parent. In addition to these two extreme scenarios, an intermediate mixed strategy (M) will also be tested. The model is used to compare the efficiency of foraging in various habitats in which the proportion of resource-rich areas (p) is varied.