A cooperative growth model for plant roots

Cooperative behaviour is a phenomenon well known in animal behaviour models and employed for the resolution of optimization problems in different fields. Plant cooperative behaviour can also offer a source of inspiration. Communication between different plants for cooperative purposes is a well-known phenomenon in biology, and is known as allelopathy. In this phenomenon, chemical signals are exchanged among plants of the same species to optimize resource exploitation both at the leaf and at the root level. However, communication among roots of the same plant has not yet been proven. In this book, the existence of signals between roots of the same plant is hypothesized with cooperation purposes and their effects are investigated on both root architecture and plant energy balance.