The reproductive behaviour of a clonal herbaceous plant, the longleaved sundew Drosera intermedia, in different heathland habitats |
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Authors: | Filip De,Ridder André A. Dhondt |
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Affiliation: | Univ of Antwerp, UIA, Dept of Biology, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilryk, Belgium |
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Abstract: | The reproductive behaviour of the longleaved sundew Drosera intermedia Hayne was studied in three hydrologically differing heathland habitats a pool edge, an old path through the wet heath and a seepage area Sexual reproductive allocation (SRA) (the slope of the regression of sexual biomass on vegetative biomass m a given season) differed strongly between years (related to temperature and precipitation) and habitats Averaged over years, path plants had a higher SRA than plants in the seepage area and at the pool edge Asexual reproductive allocation, expressed as the size-dependent probability of reproducing asexually, did not differ between habitats in most years The observations agreed with general life history theory SRA was high in the path habitat where adult survival chances were low and juvenile (= seed, first year seedling) survival was high SRA was lower in the seepage area where adult survival chances were higher and juvenile survival lower At the pool edge, a habitat with high adult mortality and low juvenile establishment, the predicted optimal reproductive behaviour, a high SRA, was not observed due to environmental constraints (inundation) |
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