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BIPARENTAL INBREEDING AND INTERREMNANT MATING IN A PERENNIAL PRAIRIE PLANT: FITNESS CONSEQUENCES FOR PROGENY IN THEIR FIRST EIGHT YEARS
Author(s) -
Wagenius Stuart,
Hangelbroek Helen H.,
Ridley Caroline E.,
Shaw Ruth G.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00860.x
Subject(s) - biology , inbreeding depression , population fragmentation , outbreeding depression , inbreeding , biological dispersal , inbreeding avoidance , ecology , mating system , local adaptation , selfing , population , reproductive success , mating , mate choice , demography , sociology
Despite fundamental importance to population dynamics, mating system evolution, and conservation management, the fitness consequences of breeding patterns in natural settings are rarely directly and rigorously evaluated. We experimentally crossed Echinacea angustifolia , a widespread, perennial prairie plant undergoing radical changes in distribution and abundance due to habitat fragmentation. We quantified the effects of both biparental inbreeding and crossing between remnant populations on progeny survival and reproduction in the field over the first eight years. Lifetime fitness is notoriously difficult to assess particularly for iteroparous species because of the long sequence and episodic nature of selection events. Even with fitness data in hand, analysis is typically plagued by nonnormal distributions of overall fitness that violate the assumptions of the usual parametric statistical approaches. We applied aster modeling, which integrates the measurements of separate, sequential, nonnormally distributed annual fitness components, and estimated current biparental inbreeding depression at 68% in progeny of sibling‐mating. The effect of between‐remnant crossing on fitness was negligible. Given that relatedness among individuals in remnant populations is already high and dispersal very limited, inbreeding depression may profoundly affect future dynamics and persistence of these populations, as well as their genetic composition.