Alteration of selection regime resulting from harvest of American ginseng, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Panax quinquefolius</Emphasis> |
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Authors: | Emily H Mooney James B McGraw |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, West Virginia University, P. O. Box 6057, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA |
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Abstract: | Replicate harvest simulations were conducted in a large natural population of Panax quinquefolius L.␣(Araliaceae) to determine the selective effects of harvest. We investigated how minimum size requirements and the influence
of size on apparency to human harvesters could result in preferential removal of large plants. To determine which plants were
encountered in the large population, harvesters were tracked using GPS as they searched for every legally harvestable, adult
plant they could find. Plants were assigned stage-specific fitness measures based on their contributions to population growth
rate (λ) under three demographically based harvest regimes: no harvest, harvest and harvest removing seeds. Plant size was
codified into a size-index equal to the product of total leaf area and stem height. Heterogeneity of slopes was tested to
determine if the selection gradients (β) describing the relationship between fitness and size varied among the three harvest
regimes. Harvest differentially reduced the fitness of larger plants in one of four individual harvest simulations. The combined
harvest simulation significantly altered the selection regime for size in the population of juvenile and adult (harvestable)
plants. Seed removal by harvesters intensified fitness declines for larger plants. Because larger plants contribute most to
population growth, the selective effects of harvest could result in a shift in the evolutionary dynamics of this species with
significant conservation implications. |
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Keywords: | Selection Wild harvest Stage-specific fitness Ginseng Panax quinquefolius |
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