Question

In alpine and tundra habitats, plants have to cope with severe environmental conditions (cold and wind) during winter. In the summer, they produce extreme floral displays in order to attract pollinators, since the summers are short and the reproductive window is small. Discuss these strategies from the point of view of Grime’s C-S-R model.

Answer 1

Answer. Grime's C S R model is an application of universal adaptive strategy theory. Here C means competitors , in this environment is less disturbed and less stress. In this plant harness the nutrition, fast growth , large productivity (biomass) and high level of phenotypic plasticity.

In S condition i.e Stress tolerator that survive in less disturbance and high stress . In this condition growth is less, long lived leaves and they have less phenotypic plasticity.

In R Condition i.e Ruderals where disturbance is high and stress is lesser. Their life span is small as they grow faster and produce a large amount of seed. As in the above condition during winter they adapt the S strategy, and growth is slower while in summer they produce large amount of floral which attract pollinators which ultimately results in high production of seed in a short period of time so this condition is a R strategy..