Dissertation Research: Life History Variation in Clarkia

小行星9520611 拟议研究的重点是更好地了解植物之间的繁殖竞争。 产生花朵的植物会竞争，因为最终产生的花粉粒比需要受精的花朵多得多。 提出的实验将集中在授粉后发生的竞争。 这一阶段竞争的一个结果是，一些个体可能比其他个体在下一代生育更多的种子。 植物之间在这方面是否存在差异？ 是什么影响了植物花粉在这个阶段的表现？ 研究人员将检查环境和植物本身的元素，以确定：1）这些因素如何影响植物在授粉后阶段的成功; 2）竞争后产生的种子数量; 3）燃烧和未燃烧栖息地的花粉表现;以及4）植物竞争不同形态的花朵的成功。 有花植物之所以侵入世界上如此多的生态位，可能是因为它们能够通过上述类型的竞争去除劣质基因。因此，这项研究可能对所有开花植物都有重要意义。 此外，这项研究可能会产生在应用领域有用的信息，因为花粉竞争的理解可以应用于作物品种的改进。

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.