Relationships Between Population Variation and Ecological Variability

The recognition that populations generally harbor large quantities of variation has resulted in a wide ranging effort to relate this variation to that of the environment. There have been primarily two approaches to the question. The population genetics approach is to examine the level of population variation that can be maintained by an environment with a given degree of heterogeneity. The ecological approach is to determine the relationship between a population's variation and its ability to occupy a variety of potential environments. Both approaches are pursued in this thesis. The population genetics approach is combined with a proposed stress-variation hypothesis. Stressful environments are predicted to yield populations with reduced levels of variation. Levels of variation were measured in populations of Amaranthus retroflexus and Abutilon theophrasti after four generations of exposure to stress gradients of density, diversity and soil moisture.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Botany

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Zangerl, Arthur Rainer

• Biology, Botany

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8127740

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/68209