Dissertation Research: Life History Variation in Clarkia

[9520611] Mazer拟议研究的重点是更好地了解植物之间的繁殖竞争。开花的植物会相互竞争，因为最终产生的花粉粒比需要受精的花要多得多。提出的实验将集中于授粉后发生的竞争。这一阶段竞争的一个结果是，一些个体在下一代中可能比其他个体产生更多的种子。不同的植物在这种能力上有什么不同吗？在这个阶段，是什么影响了植物花粉的表现？研究人员将检查环境和植物本身的因素，以确定：1)这些因素如何影响植物在授粉后阶段的成功；2)比赛后产生的种子数量；3)花粉在已烧和未烧生境上的表现；4)植物竞争不同形态花朵的成功。开花植物可能入侵了世界上如此多的生态位，因为它们有能力通过上述竞争类型去除劣质基因。因此，该研究可能对所有开花植物具有重要的启示意义。此外，该研究还可以为应用领域提供有用的信息，因为对花粉竞争的理解可以应用于作物品种的改良。

9520611 Mazer The focus of the proposed research is to better understand competition for reproduction among plants. Plants that produce flowers will compete because ultimately there are many more pollen grains produced than there are flowers to be fertilized. The experiments proposed will focus on the competition that occurs after pollination. One consequence of competition during this phase is that some individuals may father more seeds in the next generation than other individuals. Are there differences among plants in this ability? What influences how well a plant's pollen performs during this phase? The investigators will examine elements of the environment and of the plant itself to determine: 1) how these factors influence a plant's success during the post-pollination phase; 2) the number of seeds fathered following competition; 3) pollen performance on burned and unburned habitats; and 4) success by plants competing for flowers with varying morphologies. Flowering plants may have invaded so many niches in the world because of their ability to remove inferior genes through the type of competition described above. Thus this research may have important implications for all flowering plants. Moreover, the research may yield information useful in applied fields, as understanding of pollen competition could be applied to improvements in crop species.