Reproductive effort of Mastocarpus papillatus (Rhodophyta) along the California coast.

ABSTRACT: Species with sexual and asexual life cycles may exhibit intraspecific differences in reproductive effort. The spatial separation of sexual and asexual lineages, called geographic parthenogenesis, is common in plants, animals and algae. Mastocarpus papillatus is a well-documented case of geographic parthenogenesis in which sexuals dominate southern populations, asexuals dominate northern populations, while mixed populations occur throughout central California. We quantified abundances and reproductive effort of sexual and asexual fronds and tetrasporophytes at eight sites in California to test the hypotheses that (1) reduced sexual reproduction at higher latitudes and tidal heights explains the observed geographic parthenogenesis and (2) reproductive effort (spore production per blad

SUBMITTER: Krueger-Hadfield SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3678391 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature