Recruitment and migration patterns reveal a key role for seed banks in the meta-population dynamics of an aquatic plant.

ABSTRACT: Progressive habitat fragmentation threatens plant species with narrow habitat requirements. While local environmental conditions define population growth rates and recruitment success at the patch level, dispersal is critical for population viability at the landscape scale. Identifying the dynamics of plant meta-populations is often confounded by the uncertainty about soil-stored population compartments. We combined a landscape-scale assessment of an amphibious plant's population structure with measurements of dispersal complexity in time to track dispersal and putative shifts in functional connectivity. Using 13 microsatellite markers, we analyzed the genetic structure of extant Oenanthe aquatica populations and their soil seed banks in a kettle hole system to uncover hidden connectivity

SUBMITTER: Tomowski M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10338435 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature