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Assessing Threats To Plant Populations: Linking Pollinator Differences To Patterns Of Plant Fitness And Population Genetics, Rieka Yu

Dissertations

Land use change is a major driver of biodiversity loss and consequently has led to the loss of genetic diversity in many plant populations due to declines in population sizes and an increase in spatial isolation. However, not all plant populations respond similarly to land-use change, suggesting there are additional mechanisms mediating plant population genetic patterns. Here, I examine the role of pollinators as this mediating factor. In Chapter 1 I conducted a meta-analysis to investigate how different types of pollinators drive changes in gene flow for plant populations in disturbed habitats, finding that different types of pollinators mediate different …