Something that John Kempf of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA) said got me thinking:

Ecosystems thrive when the species within those ecosystems are truly collaborative. […] [When] resources are abundant, […] whether it’s water, nutrients, or whatever, […] it’s very common for plants to compete. But the moment that resources become limited, then plants begin collaborating…

What’s funny is that this goes entirely against the science behind competition: 

Competitiveness describes a key ability important for plants to grow and survive abiotic and biotic stresses. Under optimal, but particularly under non-optimal conditions, plants compete for resources including nutrients, light, water, space, pollinators and other. Competition occurs above- and belowground. In resource-poor habitats, competition is generally considered to be more pronounced than in resource-rich habitats. … [Competition] occurs between different players within an ecosystem such as between plants and soil microorganisms,

(from https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/1722/plant-competition-in-a-changing-world/magazine, About side panel)

Thanks to Darwinism, competition came about from studying organisms (in this case, plants) independently, isolated from their outside ecosystem. Or, anything they associated with their environment was ignored to answer an overly simplistic question of whether X plants were stronger than Y plants. 

That’s basically how I learned it in university. Most of my studies were on competition; very little on how plants (and animals) could collaborate. 

This shouldn’t be surprising, given the enormous amount of research that confirms the, dare I say it, as it sounds so heretical, scientific belief that supports the concept of competition. 

Why do I say this? I’ve learned so much about the natural ecology of things, from the soil food web to plants to animals, all from a holistic context, that competition makes less and less sense. (I’ve yet to share so much about what I’ve learned, but I intend to focus on this topic for now.) 

So, if plants are always competitive with each other, why, in nature, are there always an abundance of them and in very close proximity to one another? Why are different species intermingled with each other and in such close proximities? Why are there different visible canopies of plants and different plants that like different types of growing conditions all growing together?

Truly, why are weeds and noxious invasive plant species able to enter an ecosystem? Why do we not see more bare soil and wide spaces between plants in nature if plants supposedly compete for space, light, nutrients, space, pollinators, and more?

Of course, today’s science will have some answers, but they only generate more “why” questions. 

Funnily enough, the more I think about collaboration, the more I see how it answers those questions in a crazy-simple manner. 

It’s all about plants filling an ecological niche where they fit. It’s also a lot about how the environment is conducive to that species’ survival.

It’s a much different way of seeing things. Where competition is the view of inferiority or uselessness, collaboration is the view of role-play. Instead of asking how a weed, for example, should be killed, ask why it’s there and what role in the ecosystem it is trying to fill.

Plants collaborate more with each other where resources are limited. Why? How? We only need to look at nature. Resources will always be limited, whether sunlight, water, nutrients, or whatever. Yet, a forest is full of biodiversity. That’s because each species plays a unique role in the ecosystem.

They help each other get what each other needs and work together to feed each other. It doesn’t make sense to be competitive when resources are limited because that’s just foolishness. Plants and animals know they can only take what they need in the time it’s needed. Why bother hoarding what they don’t need when it’s not even going to be needed at the time?

What about when resources are plentiful? Think of how we act when there are more than enough resources. We take what we want when we want. Collaboration is largely unnecessary since it allows us to reach our goals ourselves. It’s the same with plants and animals. 

Why are weeds and invasive species able to come in, then? Again, it’s very likely because they’re filling an ecological niche not filled before by other plant species. Why they’re “choking out” other native species and reducing biodiversity is because that ecology is out of balance, and our management may have something to do with it, in that we’re creating conditions, without even realizing it, that satisfy their desire to survive and reproduce. And, in so doing, we’re also creating an environment where the population of other species declines.

Humans play an enormous role in weeds’ and noxious invasive species’ ability to thrive—much more than we care to admit. And there could be even more to the puzzle than we realize, like how they interact and associate with soil life and avian and mammal species.

But that’s yet another topic for another time.

I might expand on this topic later, but I hope I gave you some… food for thought!