Outcrossing and Fecundity in the Woodland Sedge, Carex pensylvanica: Implications for Ecological Restoration

restoration;ecology;carex;seed;Natural Resources and Environment

Buonaiuto, DanielDick, Christopher ;

University of Michigan

关键词: restoration;    ecology;    carex;    seed;    Natural Resources and Environment;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/122839/buonaiuto_opus_2016.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

The growing field of ecological restoration has prompted the horticulture industry toinclude a specialty niche of growers who breed native plants for restoration projects. The goalsof native plant production are different than those of traditional horticulture, and native plantgrowers face a host of economic and technical challenges. Such challenges can limit their abilityto produce adequate quantities and diversity of plants, and many ecologically important speciesare often underrepresented in restoration plantings. An example of this is the woodland sedgeCarex pensylvanica -- an herbaceous-layer dominant in dry eastern forests -- which is marked bypoor seed yield and germination rates, and is, as such, difficult to produce from seed. C.pensylvanica is self-compatible, and because of its expansive, clonal growth form, it is possiblethat long-term, self-pollination in many wild populations has resulted in inbreeding depressionand reduced seed production and fitness. I tested this hypothesis in a greenhouse experimentwhere I controlled the breeding system of C. pensylvanica through hand-pollination to comparethe reproductive output between outcrossed and self-pollinated manipulations. Results showedno effects of the breeding system manipulation on seed weight, but seed set in outcrossed plantswas significantly higher (1.6x) than seed set in self-pollinated subjects. Based on this data, Ideveloped models that predicted outcrossing seed set at 4.692 seeds/flower while selfing seed setpredicted at 2.835 seeds/flower, supporting the hypothesis that long-term selfing is a significantcontributor to the low seed production in this species. This study demonstrates that manipulating the breeding system of C. pensylvanica to achieve increased outcrossing is an effective way toincrease seed production.