Reproductive isolation, asynchrony, and incompatibility in fragmented prairie populations of Echinacea angustifolia

生物在小的、孤立的种群中成功繁殖的能力是产生和维持生物多样性的一个关键因素。 由于隔离而导致的繁殖失败是构成美国中部大部分草原的许多长寿多年生植物目前的前景，因为这些草原现在主要是曾经的大草原的小残余。 先前的研究表明，草原植物繁殖失败的三个最重要的原因是开花时间的不匹配，传播花粉的能力有限，以及限制密切相关个体之间交配的相容性机制。 该项目将是第一个测试这三个因素如何在自然系统中共同作用的项目。研究人员将在三年内测量明尼苏达州27个种群中紫锥菊植物的时间和相容性，并将这些数据与18年来对该物种种群增长的持续研究相结合。 预期的结果是对栖息地破碎化如何影响草原植物的生殖潜力有一个统一的认识。该项目的更广泛影响包括保护生物多样性，学生培训和科学界的新工具。 研究结果将通过芝加哥植物园的推广计划和合作传达给土地管理者和公众。 学士和研究生将学习人口生物学和计算方面的新技能。该项目将发布其详细的紫锥菊繁殖的空间和时间数据集，并开发免费的软件，使其他研究人员能够管理，可视化和分析紫锥菊和其他物种的这些信息。

The ability of organisms to successfully reproduce in small, isolated populations is a key factor in the generation and maintenance of biological diversity. Reproductive failure due to isolation is a current prospect for many of the long-lived, perennial plants that make up most of the grasslands of the central U.S. because these grasslands now exist mainly as small remnants of a once great prairie. Previous research has suggested that three of the most important causes of reproductive failure in prairie plants are mismatches in the timing of flowering, limited ability to disperse pollen, and mechanisms of compatibility that restrict mating between closely related individuals. This project will be the first to test how all three of these factors operate together in a natural system. Researchers will measure timing and compatibility of plants of Echinacea angustifolia (coneflowers) in 27 populations in Minnesota over three years and merge these data with an 18-year, continuing study on the population growth of the species. The intended result is a unified understanding of how habitat fragmentation affects the reproductive potential of grassland plants. The broader impacts of this project include conservation of biodiversity, student training, and new tools for the scientific community. Results will be communicated to land managers and the general public through the outreach programs and collaborations of the Chicago Botanical Garden. Baccalaureate and graduate students will learn new skills in population biology and computing. The project will publish its detailed spatial and temporal data sets of reproduction in Echinacea and develop freely available software to enable other researchers to manage, visualize, and analyze this information in Echinacea and other species.