Dissertation Research: Interspecific Interactions and Life History in the Maintenance of Gynodioecy in Sidalcea malviflora (Malvaceae)

9701311乌鸦雌雄异株是指雌性个体和两性个体在某一特定物种的种群中共存。关于影响植物这一繁育系统维持的因素一直存在很大争议。这项研究的目的是了解不同的生态过程和生长习性如何对种群中雌性的维持起制约或释放作用。特别是，PI正在研究植物-昆虫的相互作用，包括花粉限制和花卉食草性，可能会对雌性和两性人产生不同的影响。此外，我们正在研究种群中雌性和两性的克隆传播和空间分布如何影响花粉限制。Pis的研究种是Sidalcea Malviflora，一种雌雄异株的多年生植物，有两个对比明显的共生克隆和无性系亚种(SSP.Laciniata和SSP.(分别为野牡丹属)。我们将结合实地观察、实验操作和温室遗传研究来研究上述过程。雌雄异株通常被认为是雌雄异株发育的中间步骤，或者说是植物物种中完全分离的雄性和雌性个体。因此，对雌雄异株植物种群中雌性保持的影响因素的研究对于我们更广泛地了解整个开花植物的繁殖系统的发展是至关重要的。虽然许多研究已经研究了雌雄异株种群中维持雌性的遗传机制和资源分配方面的问题，但很少有研究关注生态因素或克隆生长在雌性选择中的作用。这项研究很重要，因为它调查了几个相互作用的生态因素的影响，从而使我们能够评估生态和生长形式在维持马尾松雌雄异株发育方面的总体重要性。

9701311 Raven Gynodioecy is the co-occurrence of female and hermaphrodite individuals in a population of a given species. There has been much debate about the factors influencing the maintenance of this breeding system in plants. The aim of this study is to understand how various ecological processes and growth habits may act as constraints or releases on the maintenance of females in populations. In particular, the PIs are looking at how plant-insect interactions including pollen limitation and floral herbivory may differentially affect females and hermaphrodites. In addition, we are studying how clonal spread and the spatial distribution of females and hermaphrodites in a population may affect pollen limitation. The PIs' study species is Sidalcea malviflora, a gynodioecious perennial with 2 contrasting and sympatric clonal and aclonal subspecies (ssp. laciniata and ssp. malviflora, respectively). A combination of field observations, experimental manipulations and genetical greenhouse studies will be used to look at the above processes. Gynodioecy is often considered to be an intermediate step in the development of dioecy, or completely separate male and female individuals within plant species. Because of this, investigation into the factors influencing the maintenance of females in gynodioecious plant populations is crucial to our broader understanding of the development of breeding systems throughout the flowering plants. Though many studies have investigated genetic mechanisms and aspects of resource allocation which act to maintain females in gynodioecious populations, very few studies have looked at the roles of ecological factors or clonal growth in selecting for females. This study is important because it investigates the effects of several interacting ecological factors and will thus enable us to evaluate the overall importance of ecology and growth form in the maintenance of gynodioecy in Sidalcea malviflora.