Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Gynodioecy And Biotic Interactions: Plant Traits, Insect Preferences, And Population-Level Consequences, Laura A. D. Doubleday

Doctoral Dissertations

In species with distinct sexes, differences between the sexes often affect interspecific interactions. In gynodioecious flowering plants, where individuals are female or hermaphrodite, both pollinators and herbivores tend to prefer hermaphrodites. Because pollinators and herbivores affect plant fitness, their preferences have consequences for plant mating patterns, natural selection on mating-related traits, and plant breeding system evolution. Being sessile, the spatial arrangement of females and hermaphrodites in gynodioecious plant populations alters conspecific density and sex ratio locally, which can also have important fitness effects. My dissertation combines observational studies in natural Silene vulgaris populations and simulation modeling to address questions about …