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.