Figure 3

The relationships of shoot biomass residuals with the degree of the plasticity of biomass partitioning to foliage (A) and fine roots (B). In this study, shoot biomass is used as a surrogate of fitness, because great capacity of vegetative growth at early stages is advantageous for competing for growth resources and is suggested to be favored by natural selection [15]. The residuals of shoot biomass were calculated by differences between its observations and predictions estimated from foliage and fine-root biomass proportions using polynomial equations (see ref. 24 for a detailed description of this calculation approach). The degree of plasticity was represented as family difference between the nutrient treatments.