Self-Thinning and Competition Intensity Over a Gradient of Nutrient Availability

High-density populations of Ocimum basilicum L. were grown in sand culture at three nutrient levels to investigate patterns of self-thinning in stands grown over a range of nutrient supply. Populations of Ocimum at each of three nutrient levels showed self-thinning with different biomass-density relationships (thinning lines) for each level. The lines for the stands at the two lower nutrient levels lay below that followed by the stands grown at the high level. Thus competition was more intense in the stands grown at low nutrient levels, when compared at a common plant mass (...)