Increased or Decreased Separation of Flowering Times? The Joint Effect of Competition for Space and Pollination in Plants

Abstract

In earlier reports the effect of an increased temporal segregation of flowering times of co-occurring species has been considered to lead either to increased seed production through decreased competition for pollination and/or pollinators, or to decreased competition between seedlings. However, these two processes are negatively coupled in that increased seed production will lead to increased competition between seedlings. In this article we analyse the consequences of this in a two-species model. We show that there are three possible results of an increase in phenological separation: (1) both species gain fitness; (2) species 1 gains and species 2 loses fitness; and (3) species 1 loses and species 2 gains fitness. We discuss how these results depend upon strength of the coupling between a change in phonological separation and the change in seed production.