Effects of converting natural forests to coniferous plantations on fruit and seed production and mating patterns in wild cherry trees

Abstract

Landscape disturbances can affect reproductive performance of animal-pollinated trees. We verified the effects of the loss and fragmentation of natural forests caused by the creation of coniferous plantations on fruit and seed production as well as mating patterns of animal-pollinated trees. We investigated 146 and 134 individual flowering trees of Prunus verecunda (Koidz.) Koehne in 2012 and 2013, respectively, at 12 sites. These sites were at least 1.2 km apart from each other in an 8 · 15-km forestry region, and the composition and configuration of natural forests varied in the study area. The mean outcrossing rate was >0.99 across the sites. Among trees within the sites, the number of fruits per inflorescence was positively correlated with the basal stem area and leaf chlorophyll density of the trees. Among the sites, the mean number of fruits per inflorescence was positively correlated with the site elevation, and the correlated paternity was positively correlated with the mean distance between trees. The sound-seed rate was positively correlated with the natural-forest area among the sites. These results suggest that environments and resources of trees influence their fruit production, that a loss of natural forests increases in embryo mortality, and that a reduction in tree density decreases pollen donor diversity in P. verecunda. Thus, a landscape disturbance may decrease seed production, whereas outbreeding is maintained, and fruit production is not likely to be dependent on the landscape disturbance in this species.

Phenological shift along an elevational gradient and dispersal of pollen and seeds maintain a hybrid zone between two cherry tree species

“…We counted the number of fruits per inflorescence to evaluate fruit production. Because fallen inflorescences leave vestiges on 1‐year‐old shoots of Cerasus species (Nagamitsu, Shuri, Taki, Kikuchi, & Masaki, 2016), the number of inflorescences ( l i ) was the sum of the number of vestiges of fallen inflorescences and infructescences with immature fruits on collected branches of mother i . We counted the number of immature fruits ( m i ) on the branches and calculated the mean number of fruits per inflorescence ( n i = m i / l i ) for mother i .…”

Multiscale spatial genetic structure within and between populations of wild cherry trees in nuclear genotypes and chloroplast haplotypes

“…Cerasus and Padus species are predominantly outcrossing because of their self‐incompatibility (Ushijima et al, ). These species have similar pollinators, including various insects dominated by bees (Nagamitsu, Shuri, Taki, Kikuchi, & Masaki, ), and similar seed dispersers, including birds and mammals (Fujitsu, Masaki, Naoe, & Koike, ; Koike, Morimoto, Goto, Kozakai, & Yamazaki, ). Thus, both species are expected to have similar ratios of pollen and seed flow between populations.…”