Threshold Size for Flowering in Different Habitats: Effects of Size- Dependent Growth and Survival

Wesselingh, Renate A.; Klinkhamer, Peter G. L.; Jong, Tom J. de; Boorman, L. A.

doi:10.2307/2265949

Cited by 49 publications

(80 citation statements)

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“…Whether or not plants flower at the end of their second summer depends on individuals attaining a threshold flowering size (de Jong et al 1998), which is both environmentally and genetically determined (Wesselingh et al 1997). Each flower produces fruits at the end of the summer consisting of up to four large nutlets.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Median threshold size is determined as the size at which the probability of flowering is 0.5 (Wesselingh et al 1997). We used Type III Likelihood Ratio tests to assess significance of the model factors in this analysis.…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We measured threshold flowering size to test the life history prediction that relative growth rate and the probability of mortality before reproduction dictate the optimal threshold size for flowering (Roff 1992;Wesselingh et al 1997). If the probability of pre-reproductive mortality decreases in the introduced range, potentially due to escape from enemies, increased threshold flowering size between native and introduced populations might evolve.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Different gardens, different results: native and introduced populations exhibit contrasting phenotypes across common gardens

2008

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Invasive plants may respond through adaptive evolution and/or phenotypic plasticity to new environmental conditions where they are introduced. Although many studies have focused on evolution of invaders particularly in the context of testing the evolution of increased competitive ability (EICA) hypothesis, few consistent patterns have emerged. Many tests of the EICA hypothesis have been performed in only one environment; such assessments may be misleading if plants that perform one way at a particular site respond differently across sites. Single common garden tests ignore the potential for important contributions of both genetic and environmental factors to affect plant phenotype. Using a widespread invader in North America, Cynoglossum officinale, we established reciprocal common gardens in the native range (Europe) and introduced range (North America) to assess genetically based differences in size, fecundity, flowering phenology and threshold flowering size between native and introduced genotypes as well as the magnitude of plasticity in these traits. In addition, we grew plants at three nutrient levels in a pot experiment in one garden to test for plasticity across a different set of conditions. We did not find significant genetically based differences between native and introduced populations in the traits we measured; in our experiments, introduced populations of C. officinale were larger and more fecund, but only in common garden experiments in the native range. We found substantial population-level plasticity for size, fecundity and date of first flowering, with plants performing better in a garden in Germany than in Montana. Differentiation of native populations in the magnitude of plasticity was much stronger than that of introduced populations, suggesting an important role for founder effects. We did not detect evidence of an evolutionary change in threshold flowering size. Our study demonstrates that detecting genetically based differences in traits may require measuring plant responses to more than one environment.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Different gardens, different results: native and introduced populations exhibit contrasting phenotypes across common gardens

2008

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“…Under adverse environmental conditions, it might be favorable for a plant to initiate reproduction at a smaller vegetative plant size, because delaying the onset of reproduction may otherwise result in total reproductive failure if plants are killed before they reproduce, or if local environmental conditions prevent a plant from achieving the optimal size to initiate reproduction. Such a response has, for example, been shown in some short-lived monocarpic plant species (Wesselingh and Klinkhamer 1996;Wesselingh et al 1997;Rees et al 1999;Callahan and Pigliucci 2002;Stinson 2004;Kagaya et al 2009), but few data are available for long-lived polycarpic plants (but see Méndez and Karlsson 2005;Weiner et al 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of herbivory on flowering behaviour and life history trade-offs in a polycarpic herb: a 10-year experiment

2010

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Herbivores can have strong deleterious effects on plant growth, reproduction, and even survival. Because these effects might be strongly interrelated, the direct consumptive effects of herbivores and a variety of indirect effects are difficult to untangle. Reductions in growth, for example, may strongly impact the flowering behaviour of plant species in the current season, but at the same time incur costs to survival, growth and reproduction in the next growing season(s). To get better insights in the effects of herbivory on the flowering behaviour of the long-lived polycarpic grassland herb Primula veris L., flowering patterns were monitored over ten consecutive years under two treatments (grazing and control mowing regimes). We tested the hypothesis that the size at flowering was affected by the presence of herbivores, and whether this translated into costs to future reproduction and survival. Overall, grazed plants were significantly smaller than control plants, and the size at which plants flowered was also significantly smaller when herbivores were present. The transition probability of flowering and of surviving into the next year was significantly smaller for all plants in the current year if they had been grazed than if they had been mown, indicating that herbivory incurred costs to both flowering and survival. Grazed plants also needed longer to start flowering, had fewer flowers and flowered less frequently, causing a significantly lower proportion of flowering adults in the population. These results suggest that the observed regression in plant size due to herbivory does not allow plants to capture enough resources to guarantee regular flowering in the longer run.

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“…A likely case was 1999, which was the year with the lowest frequency of sporophytes in contrast to 1998, which was the year with the highest frequency of sporophytes. Existence of a threshold size for reproductive success, a trait found in many seed plants (Lacey 1986;Wesselingh et al 1997), is likely to be more common among bryophytes than documented so far and should be taken into account when the relative importance of different factors for the reproductive success of bryophytes is examined.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors influencing reproductive success in the clonal moss, Hylocomium splendens

2005

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Female reproductive success in the unisexual perennial clonal moss Hylocomium splendens was examined by recording, if the segment was reproductive [produced sporophyte(s)] or not, together with several distance-to-male and male density variables, and segment size. This was done for every female segment in a population over a 5 year study period. A high fraction of the population could be sexed because we monitored the population in situ for 5 years, and thereafter harvested the population for electrophoretic analysis from which the clonal identity and expressed sex could be deduced. Fertilization distances in H. splendens were short, indicated by the fact that as many as 85% of the female segments with sporophytes were situated within a distance of 5.0 cm from the nearest male. The longest distance measured between a sporophytic female and the closest male was 11.6 cm. However, analysed within a generalized linear modelling (GLM) framework, the year was the best single predictor for the presence of H. splendens sporophyte although female-segment size and distance to the closest situated male were also strongly significant. The two latter factors explained larger fractions of variation in sporophyte presence in a GLM model with three predictors than in single-predictor models. This is because (i) the large variation in sporophyte production among years partly obscures the strong general increase in sporophyte production with increasing female-segment size and vitality, and (ii) the between-year variation and the size obscure the effect of the distance to the most proximate male. To our knowledge, this study is the first to incorporate into one model the relative importance of several factors for bryophyte reproductive success. Our results demonstrate the value of multiple-predictor approaches in studies of reproductive success.

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Threshold Size for Flowering in Different Habitats: Effects of Size- Dependent Growth and Survival

Cited by 49 publications

References 0 publications

Different gardens, different results: native and introduced populations exhibit contrasting phenotypes across common gardens

Different gardens, different results: native and introduced populations exhibit contrasting phenotypes across common gardens

Impact of herbivory on flowering behaviour and life history trade-offs in a polycarpic herb: a 10-year experiment

Factors influencing reproductive success in the clonal moss, Hylocomium splendens

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