Date of Award:

5-1982

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Biology

Committee Chair(s)

James A. McMahon

Committee

James A. McMahon

Committee

I. G. Palmblad

Committee

M. M. Caldwell

Committee

N. E. West

Committee

M. P. Windham

Abstract

An algorithm is presented which partitions space among mapped plants according to their relative sizes and positions using one of eight rules for locating boundaries between individuals. The performance of those rules is examined using several natural and artificial data sets with diverse measures of individual size. The relative performance of the rules was the same for all natural data sets examined. The best rule, as measured by a high correlation between individual size and assigned space, placed the boundary at a distance between neighbors proportional to the relative sizes of neighbors as long as a maximum distance (also a function of size) was not exceeded. It is inferred that the algorithm identifies contact neighbors and quantifies the extent of their contact. A field experiment is proposed to test this inference.

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