The Prisoner's Tilemma - A Cooperative Equilibrium

The Prisoner's Tilemma describes situations in which participants are simultaneously in competition but also benefit from cooperation. If you only play the game once then the only equilibrium is to compete not to cooperate and if you're sufficiently patient then cooperation becomes an equilibrium. Competing, yeah it can get you so far but in a plant community if you become the only one or the dominant one community actually starts to decline. That's when cooperation becomes more imperative because you need things from your neighbors. The same trees do indeed play against the other trees over and over.