Life Sciences Commons^™

Limits To Sexual Reproduction In Geothermal Bryophytes, Sarah M. Eppley, Todd N. Rosenstiel, Camille Brianne Graves, Estefanía Llaneza García

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Previous research suggests that while sexual reproduction generally increases with environmental stress it may decrease with extreme stress, at the edge of eukaryotic life. In this study, we explored the limits to sexual reproduction in an extremophile, bryophyte system to ultimately understand the processes that limit sexual reproduction. We used field data from geothermal sites at Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, to demonstrate that sexual reproduction, as measured by the number of sporophytes per shoot, decreases with increasing environmental stress. We found that the number of sporophytes per shoot is positively correlated with distance from geothermal features. When Pohlia nutans …