Dissertation Research: Can Vegetative Reproduction Explain the Abundance of Understory Shrubs in Tropical Forests?

论文研究：无性繁殖能否解释热带森林中林下灌木的丰富程度？

• 批准号: 0508471
• 负责人: James Dalling
• 金额: $ 1.18万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-07-01 至 2006-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0508471&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Vegetative; Reproduction; Explain

Differences in regeneration requirements among species have been the focus of research to explain the high species diversity of tropical forest. However, most studies have concentrated on regeneration strategies related to sexual reproduction, neglecting the contribution of vegetative propagation Even though it has been recognized that a variety of tropical plant species have the potential to reproduce vegetatively, the actual frequency of different modes of reproduction in natural populations remains unknown. Vegetative reproduction can be a particularly important regeneration pathway for small-seeded understory species that have low recruitment success from seeds. The primary goal of this proposal is to determine the relative role that vegetative reproduction plays in the regeneration of species of tropical understory shrubs, and to evaluate the consequences of this mode of reproduction in terms of genetic diversity and mating opportunities. Plants will be mapped and similarities among their genetic fingerprints will be used to distinguish the clones from the genetically distinct individuals in the field. Combining the genetic and the spatial data I will be able to determine dispersion of clones and the frequency of establishment by sexual and vegetative reproduction in the population. This study will improve our understanding of tropical ecology in areas such as colonization, recruitment, gene flow, and population demography and genetics. The support of this grant will provide training in molecular techniques for a Panamanian woman scientist. Furthermore, the database of genetic information, with the geographic locations of individual plants will be made available to the research community to address a myriad of ecological and evolutionary questions, where knowledge of the genotypes and genetic relationships among plants is essential.

物种间更新需求的差异一直是解释热带森林物种多样性的研究重点。然而，大多数研究都集中在与有性繁殖相关的更新策略上，而忽视了营养繁殖的贡献尽管人们已经认识到各种热带植物物种具有营养繁殖的潜力，但不同繁殖模式在自然种群中的实际频率仍然未知。对于从种子中招募成功率较低的小种子林下物种来说，营养繁殖可能是一条特别重要的更新途径。这项建议的主要目标是确定营养繁殖在热带林下灌木物种更新中的相对作用，并从遗传多样性和交配机会的角度评估这种繁殖方式的后果。植物将被绘制成地图，它们的遗传指纹之间的相似性将被用来区分克隆人和田间遗传上截然不同的个体。结合遗传和空间数据，我将能够确定无性系在种群中的分散程度以及通过有性繁殖和无性繁殖建立种群的频率。这项研究将在殖民、招募、基因流动、人口统计学和遗传学等领域增进我们对热带生态学的理解。这笔赠款的支持将为一名巴拿马女科学家提供分子技术培训。此外，遗传信息数据库以及单个植物的地理位置将向研究界提供，以解决大量的生态和进化问题，其中关于植物之间的基因类型和遗传关系的知识是必不可少的。