A multiscale model for plant invasion through allelopathic suppression

Abstract

In the present paper, we propose and study by numerical simulations a multiscale model for plant invasion based on allelopathic suppression in a homogeneous environment. The negative effects on seed production and germination, establishment and mortality of native plants generated by the root-secreted alien phytotoxin constitute the basic mechanism contributing to invasiveness. We obtained the invasion patterns, their success probabilities, the time evolution of plant populations, the gyration radius and the border roughness of the invaded region. As an important result, it was observed that, in addition to the phytotoxin nature (synthesis and degradation rates, diffusivity and phytotoxic threshold), invasive patterns and invasion success depend on the kind of native plants present in the area. In fact, both success and invasion speed decrease in the presence of resistant native plants. Also, self-affine invasion fronts are smooth (Hurst exponent H = 1) in the absence of resistant plants, but are rough (H ≠ 1) on the contrary. Furthermore, if the resistant native species are randomly distributed on the landscape, the invasion front exhibits long-range correlations (H ∼ 0.76), while its border is anti-correlated (H ∼ 0.20), if resistant plants are distributed in patches. Finally, the cluster size distribution functions of resistant plants are exponentials with characteristic cluster sizes increasing in time.