Resource Dynamics and Vegetation Processes: A Deterministic Model Using Two-Dimensional Cellular Automata

Rules of resource capture, utilization and release derived from CSR theory have been used to construct a cellular automaton model simulating secondary succession and spatial patterns of vegetation development on gradients in resource concentration and intensity of disturbance. It is confirmed that simple differences in the resource dynamics of founder populations are sufficient to generate a succession in which there are phases of dominance and decline consistent with Egler's initial floristic composition hypothesis, Odum's theory of ecosystem maturation and Connell and Slatyer's inhibition model of secondary succession. Differences in resource dynamics may also permit a stable coexistence of populations in the presence of gradients of vegetation disturbance (...)