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AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE IN BRASSICA RAPA (CRUCIFERAE)
Author(s) -
Miller Thomas E.,
Schemske Douglas W.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1990.tb13594.x
Subject(s) - interspecific competition , intraspecific competition , biology , competition (biology) , brassica rapa , biomass (ecology) , storage effect , brassica , botany , agronomy , ecology
Growth chamber experiments with rapid‐cycling Brassica rapa were designed to estimate the signs and magnitudes of the genetic correlations for plant performance in each of three conditions: no‐competition (isolated plants), intraspecific competition, and interspecific competition with Raphanus sativa. Biomass and flower number were highest in the no‐competition treatment, intermediate under intraspecific competition, and lowest under interspecific competition. Significant among‐family variation in biomass and flower number was found under each regime. The mean family performance (biomass or flower number) in the no‐competition treatment was significantly positively correlated with the performance in only one of the competitive treatments (for biomass in the intraspecific treatment). For both biomass and flower number there was a significant positive correlation between family means in the intra‐ and interspecific regimes. These correlations were greater in magnitude than those for the comparison between no‐competition and competition (intra‐ or interspecific) treatments. Our results suggest that the importance of traits affecting plant performance is environment‐dependent; the performance of a family grown without competition was a poor predictor of performance with competition, while the performance of families grown under intra‐ and interspecific competition was positively correlated.