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

当一株植物通过一次投入它所有的可用于繁殖的资源而在适应性上获得不成比例的巨大收益时，它应该受到青睐，即植物生长数年然后经历一次致命的繁殖。以前对植物的研究主要集中在单核性如何通过提高交配成功率使成年植物在其自身的生命周期中受益。这项拟议的研究将测试单核性是否也通过允许植物在幼苗建立期间提供母性照顾或直接提高后代存活率的护理效应而赋予健康益处。本研究将有助于加深对母系关爱选择如何塑造植物生活史属性的基本认识。这将是第一批将亲代抚育考虑纳入植物生殖策略解释的研究之一。

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.