Bottlenecks for plant recruitment in woodland remnants: An ornithochorous shrub in a Mediterranean ‘relictual’ landscape

González‐Varo, Juan P.; Nora, Sofia; Aparicio, Abelardo

doi:10.1016/j.ppees.2011.11.002

Cited by 30 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…This idea is very consistent with a recent study (González-Varo and Traveset 2010) testing among-family variation in inbreeding depression of M. communis progenies produced by controlled crossings (self-and cross-pollinations). Beyond seedling growth in itself, it is expected that seedlings exhibiting slow growth rates will have much lower chances of survival under natural conditions (see , 2012. Hence, our results can explain to some extent the maintenance or loss of genetic diversity in fragmented myrtle populations (see Albaladejo et al 2009) since the most heterozygous families were also the most vigorous within the Large but not within the Small populations studied.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Contrasting heterozygosity-fitness correlations between populations of a self-compatible shrub in a fragmented landscape

et al. 2012

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The mechanisms underlying heterozygosity-fitness correlations (HFCs) are subject of intense debates, especially about how important population features such as size or degree of isolation influence HFCs. Here, we report variation in HFCs between Large and Small populations of a self-compatible shrub (Myrtus communis) occurring within an extremely fragmented landscape. In each of the five study populations, we obtained data on both heterozygosity and fitness for 9-12 maternal families (i.e. offspring from the same mother plant). Whereas heterozygosity explained most of the variance (60-86 %) in growth rate of seedling families within Large populations, this relationship was absent within Small populations. Our results suggest that inbreeding may explain the observed HFCs within Large populations, and that different genetic processes (such as genetic drift and/or selection) could have overridden HFCs within Small populations. While it is difficult to draw general conclusions from five populations, we think our results open new research perspectives on how different genetic processes underlie variation in HFCs under different population contexts. Our study also points to a need for further attention on the complex relationships between heterozygosity in self-compatible plants and their progeny in relation to mating system variation. Finally, our results provide interesting new insights into how population genetic diversity is maintained or lost in a highly fragmented landscape.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Contrasting heterozygosity-fitness correlations between populations of a self-compatible shrub in a fragmented landscape

et al. 2012

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“…The gradual purging of the most homozygous genotypes during the earliest life stages (David et al 2007;Dornier & Cheptou 2012) from populations guarantees that the inbreeding coefficient in the adult stage is not significantly different from zero. This argument is relevant because selfing rates obtained for progeny in Myrtus populations in the same study area ranged from 0.28 to 0.87 (data recalculated from Gonz alez-Varo et al 2010). Indeed, high rates of inbred progeny in Myrtus are known to reflect significantly lower fitness (in terms of germination rates and seedling survival; Gonz alez-Varo et al 2010.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This argument is relevant because selfing rates obtained for progeny in Myrtus populations in the same study area ranged from 0.28 to 0.87 (data recalculated from Gonz alez-Varo et al 2010). Indeed, high rates of inbred progeny in Myrtus are known to reflect significantly lower fitness (in terms of germination rates and seedling survival; Gonz alez-Varo et al 2010.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both species share the same guild of seed dispersers and have similar long life spans; therefore these differences could be mostly attributable to their respective mating and pollen-dispersal systems (Aguilar et al 2006). Gonz alez-Varo et al (2010 have recently shown that selfing in wild Myrtus populations is frequent, ensuring seed production for the next season at the cost of reducing genetic diversity in progeny and the negative consequences for fitness (discussed above). Furthermore, the progeny composition of Myrtus plants highly depends on the local pollinator environment, rather than merely on habitat fragmentation (Gonz alez-Varo et al 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genetic variation and structure in the Mediterranean shrubs Myrtus communis and Pistacia lentiscus in different landscape contexts

2014

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Studies concerning different habitat configurations can provide insights into the complex interactions between species' life-history traits and the environment and can help to predict patterns in population genetics. In this study, we compared patterns of genetic variation in two Mediterranean shrub species (Myrtus communis and Pistacia lentiscus) that co-occur in populations within three contrasting landscape contexts: continuous, fragmented-connected and fragmented-isolated populations. Analysing variation at microsatellites loci, our results revealed weak responses to the landscape contexts. We rather found a population-specific response in both study species. However, despite both study species sharing similar levels of genetic diversity, Myrtus displayed higher levels of homozygosity and genetic differentiation among populations, stronger patterns of within-population spatial genetic structure, lower values of mutation-scaled effective population size and stronger evidence for recent genetic bottlenecks than Pistacia. This result highlights the influence of past events (e.g. historical connectivity, fluctuations in population size) and local factors (e.g. microhabitat availability for recruitment, habitat quality, plant density, native fauna) and that the landscape configuration per se (i.e. fragment size and/or isolation) might not completely determine the species' genetic patterns.

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“…To avoid bias between seedling emergency of sowed seeds of our experiment and seedlings from natural dispersed seeds, we started this experiment in early March 2011, the end of the natural dispersion period (cf. González-Varo et al [41]). We sowed seeds in three distinct microhabitats: (1) under conspecific shrubs ( Myrtus seeds under Myrtus shrubs and Pistacia seeds under Pistacia shrubs), (2) under heterospecific shrubs ( Myrtus seeds under Pistacia shrubs and Pistacia seeds under Myrtus shrubs), and (3) in open ground under tree cover.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High Correlated Paternity Leads to Negative Effects on Progeny Performance in Two Mediterranean Shrub Species

2016

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Anthropogenic habitat deterioration can promote changes in plant mating systems that subsequently may affect progeny performance, thereby conditioning plant recruitment for the next generation. However, very few studies yet tested mating system parameters other than outcrossing rates; and the direct effects of the genetic diversity of the pollen received by maternal plants (i.e. correlated paternity) has often been overlooked. In this study, we investigated the relation between correlated paternity and progeny performance in two common Mediterranean shrubs, Myrtus communis and Pistacia lentiscus. To do so, we collected open-pollinated progeny from selected maternal plants, calculated mating system parameters using microsatellite genotyping and conducted sowing experiments under greenhouse and field conditions. Our results showed that some progeny fitness components were negatively affected by the high correlated paternity of maternal plants. In Myrtus communis, high correlated paternity had a negative effect on the proportion and timing of seedling emergence in the natural field conditions and in the greenhouse sowing experiment, respectively. In Pistacia lentiscus, seedling emergence time under field conditions was also negatively influenced by high correlated paternity and a progeny survival analysis in the field experiment showed greater mortality of seedlings from maternal plants with high correlated paternity. Overall, we found effects of correlated paternity on the progeny performance of Myrtus communis, a self-compatible species. Further, we also detected effects of correlated paternity on the progeny emergence time and survival in Pistacia lentiscus, an obligate outcrossed species. This study represents one of the few existing empirical examples which highlight the influence that correlated paternity may exert on progeny performance in multiple stages during early seedling growth.

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Bottlenecks for plant recruitment in woodland remnants: An ornithochorous shrub in a Mediterranean ‘relictual’ landscape

Cited by 30 publications

References 44 publications

Contrasting heterozygosity-fitness correlations between populations of a self-compatible shrub in a fragmented landscape

Contrasting heterozygosity-fitness correlations between populations of a self-compatible shrub in a fragmented landscape

Genetic variation and structure in the Mediterranean shrubs Myrtus communis and Pistacia lentiscus in different landscape contexts

High Correlated Paternity Leads to Negative Effects on Progeny Performance in Two Mediterranean Shrub Species

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