Dissertation Research: The Role of Nurse Effects in the Evolution of the Monocarpic Plant Life History

9520553植物生长数年，然后经历一轮致命的繁殖，当一种植物通过一次性投入所有可用于繁殖的资源，在适应性方面获得不成比例的巨大增长时，应该受到青睐。以前对植物的研究集中在单果如何通过提高交配成功而使成年植物在其一生中受益。这项拟议的研究将测试单果是否也可以通过允许植物提供母性护理或哺育效果来提供健康益处，从而直接提高苗木建立期间的后代存活率。这项研究将加强对母爱选择如何塑造植物生活史属性的基本理解。这将是将父母照顾纳入植物繁殖策略解释的首批研究之一。

9520553 Gerhardt Monocarpy, in which plants grow for several years then undergo one, fatal bout of reproduction, should be favored when a plant experiences a disproportionately large gain in fitness by investing all the resources it has available for reproduction at once. Previous research in plants has focused on how monocarpy might benefit the adult plant during its own lifetime through enhanced mating success. The proposed research will test whether monocarpy also confers fitness benefits by allowing plants to provide maternal care or nurse effects that directly increase offspring survival during seedling establishment. This research will enhance basic understanding of how selection on maternal care shapes the life-history attributes of plants. It will be among the first studies to incorporate consideration of parental care into explanations of plant reproductive strategies.