Optimal resource allocation and prolonged dormancy strategies in herbaceous plants

1. Understanding the fitness consequences of different life histories is critical for explaining their diversity and for predicting effects of changing environmental conditions. However, current theory on plant life histories relies on phenomenological, rather than mechanistic, models of resource production.

2. We combined a well-supported mechanistic model of ontogenetic growth that incorporates differences in the size-dependent scaling of gross resource production and maintenance costs with a dynamic optimization model to predict schedules of reproduction and prolonged dormancy (plants staying below ground for ≥ 1 growing season) that maximize lifetime offspring production.

3. Our model makes three novel predictions: First, maintenance costs strongly influence the conditions under which a monocarpic or polycarpic life history evolves and how resources should be allocated to reproduction by polycarpic plants. Second, in contrast to previous theory, our model allows plants to comp...