On the forces that govern clonality versus sexuality in plant communities |
| |
Authors: | Kristjan Zobel |
| |
Institution: | (1) Institute of Botany and Ecology, University of Tartu, 40 Lai St., 51005 Tartu, Estonia |
| |
Abstract: | Although sexuality is considered evolutionarily progressive, clonality is very common in plants and the prevailing means of
reproduction in several community types. I discuss what could be the forces that have influenced the selection among sexual
versus non-sexual reproduction at community level. I propose that, among others, the probability of self-competition must
have been one of the key factors. The probability of meeting one’s own genes for wasteful competition is higher in communities
where clonality prevails (and relatively high mean intra-species relatedness is expected), and higher in communities with
low species diversity. On the other hand, lower diversity indicates a higher average fitness of species since the (finite)
total pool of resources is distributed among fewer population with high density. I show, using four community types with contrasting
diversity and clonality that community fitness (average fitness in the assemblage of species) can be expressed as the product
of two variables––anti-diversity and degree of sexuality. |
| |
Keywords: | Clonality Sexuality Plant communities Self-competition Diversity Community fitness |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|