A model for hyphae effects in phosphorus absorption by plants

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.