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Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Extreme Environments Select For Reproductive Assurance: Evidence From Evening Primroses (Oenothera), Margaret Evans, David Hearn, Kathryn Theiss, Karen Cranston, Kent Holsinger, Michael Donoghue Jun 2012

Extreme Environments Select For Reproductive Assurance: Evidence From Evening Primroses (Oenothera), Margaret Evans, David Hearn, Kathryn Theiss, Karen Cranston, Kent Holsinger, Michael Donoghue

Kent E Holsinger

• Competing evolutionary forces shape plant breeding systems (e.g. inbreeding depression, reproductive assurance). Which of these forces prevails in a given population or species is predicted to depend upon such factors as life history, eco- logical conditions, and geographical context. Here, we examined two such predictions: that self-compatibility should be associated with the annual life history or extreme climatic conditions.

• We analyzed data from a clade of plants remarkable for variation in breeding system, life history and climatic conditions (Oenothera, sections Anogra and Kleinia, Onagraceae). We used a phylogenetic comparative approach and Bayesian or hybrid Bayesian tests to account …

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Plant-Animal Interactions, W. Abrahamson, T. Taylor Dec 2010

Plant-Animal Interactions, W. Abrahamson, T. Taylor

Warren G. Abrahamson, II

No abstract provided.

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Legume Phylogeny And The Evolution Of A Unique Contractile Apparatus That Regulates Phloem Transport, Winfried Peters, Claudia Hanakam, Dietmar Haffer, Aart Van Bel, Michael Knoblauch Mar 2010

Legume Phylogeny And The Evolution Of A Unique Contractile Apparatus That Regulates Phloem Transport, Winfried Peters, Claudia Hanakam, Dietmar Haffer, Aart Van Bel, Michael Knoblauch

Winfried S. Peters

Protein bodies called forisomes undergo Ca2+-dependent deformations to occlude sieve tubes reversibly, providing a unique regulatory mechanism of phloem transport. Because forisomes are known exclusively from the Papilionoideae (Leguminosae), the evolution of forisome function may have played a role in the rapid radiation of this huge taxon. The unexpected discovery of a papilionoid species lacking forisomes led us to evaluate a representative set of species covering 33 of the 36 legume tribes traditionally recognized. We found forisomes in Papilionoideae but not in Caesalpinioideae and Mimosoideae. Forisomes were absent from several species of the papilionoid tribe Galegeae. Forisomes with tail-like protrusions …

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Biological Stoichiometry Of Plant Production: Metabolism, Scaling, And Ecological Response To Global Change, Andrew Kerkhoff, J.J. Elser, W.F. Fagan, B.J. Enquist Dec 2009

Biological Stoichiometry Of Plant Production: Metabolism, Scaling, And Ecological Response To Global Change, Andrew Kerkhoff, J.J. Elser, W.F. Fagan, B.J. Enquist

Andrew J Kerkhoff

No abstract provided.

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Life History, Sexual Dimorphism And 'Ornamental' Feathers In The Mesozoic Bird Confuciusornis Sanctus., Winfried S. Peters, Dieter Stefan Peters Sep 2009

Life History, Sexual Dimorphism And 'Ornamental' Feathers In The Mesozoic Bird Confuciusornis Sanctus., Winfried S. Peters, Dieter Stefan Peters

Winfried S. Peters

The life history of Confuciusornis sanctus is controversial. Recently, the species’ body size spectrum was claimed to contradict osteohistological evidence for a rapid, bird-like development. Moreover, sexual size dimorphism was rejected as an explanation for the observed bimodal size distribution since the presence of elongated rectrices, an assumed ‘male’ trait, was uncorrelated with size. However, this interpretation (i) fails to explain the size spectrum of C. sanctus which is trimodal rather than bimodal, (ii) requires implausible neonate masses and (iii) is not supported by analogy with sexual dimorphisms in modern birds, in which elongated central rectrices are mostly sex-independent. Available …

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Pollination Of The Crown Imperial Fritillaria Imperialis By Great Tits Parus Major, Winfried S. Peters, Michael Pirl, Gerhard Gottsberger, Dieter Stefan Peters Feb 1995

Pollination Of The Crown Imperial Fritillaria Imperialis By Great Tits Parus Major, Winfried S. Peters, Michael Pirl, Gerhard Gottsberger, Dieter Stefan Peters

Winfried S. Peters

Visitations of flowers of the Crown Imperial by Great Tits at two different locations in Hessen, Germany, in 1990 and 1993 are described. The observations prove that flowers were visited because of the nectar; most likely pollination occurs during this visits. Similar reports from Europe are discussed. The significance of specific interactions including ecological generalists such as the Great Tit is considered in the context of the phylogenetic reconstruction of the development of co-adaptive syndroms.

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