Figure 2.

(a) A hypothetical dispersal kernel, showing characteristic right skew. The line shows the density at which the seeds land at a given distance from the parent positioned at the origin. (b) The resultant density of surviving seedlings following the action of compensating density dependence. The maximum density of seedlings is always at the origin. The different lines show the effects of increasing the strength of density dependence. (c) The resultant density of seedlings following overcompensating density dependence. The maximum density of seedlings is at some distance away from the origin, depending on the strength of density dependence. (d) Dispersal in space of seeds from two individuals of different species of trees (indicated by different line shadings). (e) Assuming that the density-dependent effects of pathogens are host-specific, the resultant density of surviving seedlings through space following strong compensating density dependence is shown. (f) The resultant density of seedlings following strong overcompensating density dependence. Note that in this latter example, the highest densities of seedlings are closest to heterospecific parents, in line with the predictions of the Janzen–Connell hypothesis.