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Factors influencing reproductive success in the clonal moss, Hylocomium splendens

Author

Summary, in English

Female reproductive success in the unisexual

perennial clonal moss Hylocomium splendens was

examined by recording, if the segment was reproductive

[produced sporophyte(s)] or not, together with several

distance-to-male and male density variables, and segment

size. This was done for every female segment in a

population over a 5 year study period. A high fraction

of the population could be sexed because we monitored

the population in situ for 5 years, and thereafter harvested

the population for electrophoretic analysis from

which the clonal identity and expressed sex could be

deduced. Fertilization distances in H. splendens were

short, indicated by the fact that as many as 85% of the

female segments with sporophytes were situated within a

distance of 5.0 cm from the nearest male. The longest

distance measured between a sporophytic female and the

closest male was 11.6 cm. However, analysed within a

generalized linear modelling (GLM) framework, the

year was the best single predictor for the presence of H.

splendens sporophyte although female-segment size and

distance to the closest situated male were also strongly

significant. The two latter factors explained larger fractions

of variation in sporophyte presence in a GLM

model with three predictors than in single-predictor

models. This is because (i) the large variation in sporophyte

production among years partly obscures the

strong general increase in sporophyte production with

increasing female-segment size and vitality, and (ii) the

between-year variation and the size obscure the effect of

the distance to the most proximate male. To our

knowledge, this study is the first to incorporate into one

model the relative importance of several factors for

bryophyte reproductive success. Our results demonstrate

the value of multiple-predictor approaches in studies of

reproductive success.

Department/s

Publishing year

2006

Language

English

Pages

445-454

Publication/Series

Oecologia

Volume

147

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Ecology

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1432-1939