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A Study on Polymorphism in Aster tripolium L. (Sea Aster)
Author(s) -
Huiskes A. H. L.,
Koutstaal B. P.,
WielemakerVan den Dool A.,
Markusse M. M.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
plant biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.871
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1438-8677
pISSN - 1435-8603
DOI - 10.1055/s-2000-7467
Subject(s) - biology , salt marsh , marsh , advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer , brackish marsh , brackish water , population , inflorescence , botany , perennial plant , halophyte , ecology , salinity , geography , wetland , remote sensing , demography , sociology , digital elevation model
Genotypic and environmental variation in Aster tripolium L. was studied in common garden experiments and in transplantation experiments in different saltmarsh sites along the estuarine gradient of the Westerschelde and along the elevation gradient of individual saltmarshes. Analysis of the variation in a number of morphologic characters of the inflorescences indicated that this variation is both environmentally as well as genetically controlled. Morphologic differences between an Aster tripolium population of a brackish marsh and a number of populations of a saline marsh were unchanged whether the plants were growing in their original habitat or in a transplant habitat. The population from the brackish marsh had smaller inflorescences with ray florets and a predominantly biennial life cycle, in contrast with the populations of the saline marsh, which had larger inflorescences usually without or with a few ray florets and showed a tendency to a perennial life cycle. We concluded that the variation between the populations of the saline and the brackish marsh is mainly genetically controlled, while the variation within the saline marsh is mainly environmentally controlled.