Does the ESS height of plant population still exist with the inclusion of spatial structure?—An individual-based model research

The game-theoretic models on plant height have reached the conclusions that there is an ESS height for the plant population on which all plants in the population should converge. Whereas none of them have considered the spatial structure and neighborhood effects of plant population. We constructed a spatially explicit game theory model to explore plant height growth under the light competition. In our model, there is no ESS height for plant population, the population at ESS height can be invaded by the alternative plant height growth strategies which is shorter than the ESS height. Our results indicate that the plasticity of plant's height growth reactions to the light competition should be considered merely at the individual-level. Game-theoretic models for plant phenotypic traits should move from “mean-field approximations” towards explicit modeling of local interactions.