In this work we generalise one of the approaches introduced by Thornley to
describe plant growth for the case of two plants in a complex web. In this
first attempt to simulate this situation, we introduce a description of the
role of hyphae in changing the absorption of phosphorus for a given soil o
f the considered web. The interaction between two selected plants is given
by an average coupling induced by the constituents of the complex environme
nt. The calculations show that the changes in growth of the total dry mass
may be positive or negative when compared with isolated plants. (C) 2001 El
sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.