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。开花的植物将会竞争，因为最终产生的花粉粒比需要受精的花朵要多得多。建议的实验将集中在授粉后发生的竞争上。这一阶段竞争的一个后果是，一些个体在下一代可能比其他个体拥有更多的种子。在这种能力上，植物之间是否存在差异？是什么影响了植物花粉在这一时期的表现？研究人员将研究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)竞争后产生的种子数量；3)在燃烧和未燃烧的生境上的花粉表现；以及4)植物竞争不同形态的花的成功。开花植物之所以入侵了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来消除劣势基因。因此，这项研究可能对所有开花植物都有重要的意义。此外，这项研究可能会在应用领域产生有用的信息，因为对花粉竞争的了解可以应用于作物物种的改良。

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.