From theory to experiments for testing the proximate mechanisms of mast seeding: an agenda for an experimental ecology
From theory to experiments for testing the proximate mechanisms of mast seeding: an agenda for an experimental ecology
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DOI：
10.1111/ele.13442
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发表时间：
2019-12-19
期刊：
影响因子：
8.8
通讯作者：
Tanentzap, Andrew
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bogdziewicz, Michal;Ascoli, Davide;Tanentzap, Andrew
植物种群种子的高度可变和同步生产（称为肥大）与许多重要的生态过程有关，但人们对它是如何产生的仍然知之甚少。缺乏实验研究阻碍了对潜在机制的明确测试，从而无法对环境变化对植物繁殖模式和全球植被动态的影响进行有意义的预测。在这里，我们回顾了与肥大最相关的直接驱动因素，并概述了一项研究议程，该议程将肥大生物学从主要是观察性的生态学领域转变为植根于机械理解的领域。我们将实验框架分为三个主要过程：资源动态、花粉限制以及遗传和激素调节，并说明如何测试有关近似机制的具体预测，并重点介绍了少数成功的实验作为例子。我们设想，我们概述的实验将为桅杆模式如何以及为何响应不断变化的环境提供新的见解。
Highly variable and synchronised production of seeds by plant populations, known as masting, is implicated in many important ecological processes, but how it arises remains poorly understood. The lack of experimental studies prevents underlying mechanisms from being explicitly tested, and thereby precludes meaningful predictions on the consequences of changing environments for plant reproductive patterns and global vegetation dynamics. Here we review the most relevant proximate drivers of masting and outline a research agenda that takes the biology of masting from a largely observational field of ecology to one rooted in mechanistic understanding. We divide the experimental framework into three main processes: resource dynamics, pollen limitation and genetic and hormonal regulation, and illustrate how specific predictions about proximate mechanisms can be tested, highlighting the few successful experiments as examples. We envision that the experiments we outline will deliver new insights into how and why masting patterns might respond to a changing environment.