We study optimal two-sector (vegetative and reproductive) allocation models of annual plants in temporally variable environments that incorporate effects of density-dependent lifetime variability and juvenile mortality in a fitness function whose expected value is maximized. Only special cases of arithmetic and geometric mean maximizers have previously been considered in the literature, and we also allow a wider range of production functions with diminishing returns. The model predicts that the time of maturity is pushed to an earlier date as the correlation between individual lifetimes increases, and while optimal schedules are bang-bang at the extremes, the transition is mediated by schedules where vegetative growth is mixed with reproduction for a wide intermediate range.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF