RAPID: Spatial scale of flowering and seed production in Posidonia oceanica - the influence of clonal structure

海草Posidonia oceanica是一种克隆物种，是地中海沿海地区的主要生境形成和基础物种。该物种还通过其在稳定海岸线和巨大的初级生产力方面的作用提供额外的生态系统服务。在过去的世纪，特别是在过去的50年里，P. oceanica草甸一直在收缩，在很大程度上是由于人为因素，并有相当大的努力，旨在恢复退化的草甸。这些努力几乎总是涉及根茎的移植，假设草地的扩张和局部补充将通过营养生长发生。这些努力收效甚微。 PI的挑战流行的假设，有性生殖的克隆物种在很大程度上是不重要的人口统计和救援。 他们将利用最近在地中海北方几个地点正在进行的大规模开花。 从一个网站的初步数据显示空间格局内的海草群落开花。 如果这些模式与克隆有关，通过遗传分析确定，这些知识可能对保护和恢复该物种的当地种群有很大帮助。 它还将阐明一个基本问题，即长寿物种中有性和无性生殖模式的相对功能。 像现在这样的开花事件既罕见又不可预测，这对这个项目来说是一个非常好的机会。 更广泛的影响：这项工作开始作为一个学生项目下的PI的方向，和两名女本科生参与的初始项目将在本提案中描述的研究中发挥主要作用，在适当的监督下，并在分子技术的新培训。结果将提供新的见解，可能是非常有用的保护和恢复生物学。

The sea grass Posidonia oceanica, a clonal species, is the dominant habitat forming, foundation species in coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea. This species also provides additional ecosystem services through its role in stabilizing shorelines and immense primary productivity. Over the last century and particularly over the last 50 years, P. oceanica meadows have been contracting, in large part due to anthropogenic factors, and there has been considerable effort directed at restoration of degraded meadows. These efforts have almost always involved the transplantation of rhizomes, under the assumption that expansion and local replenishment of meadows would occur via vegetative growth. These efforts have met with little success. The PIs challenge the prevailing assumption that sexual reproduction for this clonal species is largely unimportant to population demography and rescue. They will take advantage of a recent and on-going mass flowering of P. oceanica at several sites in the northern Mediterranean. Preliminary data from one of the sites show spatial patterns of flowering within the sea grass communities. If these patterns are related to clones, identified through genetic analysis, that knowledge could be of great help in conserving and restoring local populations of this species. It would also shed light on a fundamental question about the relative functioning of sexual and asexual reproductive modes in a long-lived species. Flowering events such as the ones now taking place are both rare and unpredictable, making this an unusually good opportunity for this project. Broader Impacts: This work began as a student project under the direction of the PIs, and the two female undergraduate students involved in the initial project will play a primary role in the research described in this proposal, under appropriate supervision and with new training in molecular techniques. Results will provide new insights that could be very useful in conservation and restoration biology.