Dissertation Research: Impacts of invasive species: population consequences of altering inbreeding depression and mating systems in native plants

入侵植物是对全球多样性的最大威胁之一，但它们影响本土植物的机制尚不清楚。除了通过竞争资源直接降低本地植物种群的适合度外，入侵植物还可能破坏重要的种群特性，例如克隆繁殖的程度，自花受精的比例，或自花受精和异交个体之间的适合度差异。在这项研究中，研究人员将整合遗传，分子和种群建模技术，以确定入侵的紫色金钱草（千屈菜）如何改变方茎猴花（Mimulus ringens）的这些特性，并由此影响M的种群适应性。ringens。这将是第一个工作的特点的影响，入侵的竞争对手的健身效果的植物自受精。此外，它将量化入侵竞争对手对本地植物的种群水平影响，为未来预测和管理生物入侵的尝试提供有价值的见解。这项研究将有助于本科研究人员的科学培训以及密苏里州肖自然保护区的教育和管理计划，该保护区每年接待6万名游客。

Invasive plants are one of the greatest threats to global diversity, yet the mechanisms by which they affect native plants are not well understood. In addition to directly reducing the fitness of native plant populations by competing for resources, invasive plants may disrupt important population properties, such as the extent of clonal reproduction, the proportion of self fertilization, or the fitness differences between self-fertilized and outcrossed individuals. In this study, the investigators will integrate genetic, molecular, and population modeling techniques to determine how the invasive purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) alters these properties in the square-stemmed monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens), and the resulting affects the population fitness of M. ringens.This will be the first work to characterize the influence of invasive competitors on the fitness effects of self-fertilization in plants. Furthermore, it will quantify the population-level effects of an invasive competitor on a native plant, providing valuable insight to future attempts to predict and manage biological invasions. This research will contribute to the scientific training of undergraduate researchers and the education and management programs at the Shaw Nature Reserve in Missouri, which receives 60,000 visitors every year.