Evolutionary ecology of carbon acquisition in plants: kin recognition and niche partitioning in sibling competition

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Plants sense and integrate information, changing their growth and development in response to their environment. Identity recognition is an emerging field in plant ecology, with competitive, reproductive and defensive traits showing plasticity to the identity of neighbours. Evolutionary theory suggests that the ability to identify relatives can increase fitness, since it allows individuals to favour relatives that share their genes. The findings from my lab that group root allocation differs between sibling and stranger groups indicate that plants may have the ability to recognize and favour their relatives. In this research we will look in greater detail at the individual phenotype of plants in sibling/stranger groups to determine whether kin recognition responses can be found in multiple traits: individual root allocation, detailed root morphology and root architecture, and spatial use of the soil by plants in competition.