The Ecology of Sexual and Apomictic Reproduction in Antennaria Parlinii Gaertner (Apomixis, Plant Breeding Systems, Evolution)

Differences in habitat and geographic distributions of sexually and asexually reproducing species are often attributed to differences in relative colonizing and competitive abilities. In this thesis, fitness components that influence colonizing and competitive ability are compared in an herbaceous perennial, Antennaria parlinii, in which seed production occurs in plants that are either sexual and dioecious or apomictic. Studies of seedlings and ramet production by adult plants in natural populations documented differences in survivorship and allocation between sexual and apomictic plants. Populations of sexual and apomictic plants also differed in overall growth and reproduction in response to greenhouse gradients of light and nutrients, as well as in the breadths and magnitudes of the niche responses. The populations also differed in the diversity of internal responses shown among their component individual genotypes. Competition experiments compared the growth and reproduction of sexual and apomictic plants in monocultural and mixed pairwise treatments in the field and under greenhouse conditions of high and low light.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Plant Biology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Michaels, Helen Judith

• Biology, General
• Biology, Ecology

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8610962

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71282