Mega Clonality in an Aquatic Plant-A Potential Survival Strategy in a Changing Environment.

ABSTRACT: Many ecosystems are experiencing rapid transformations due to global environmental change. Understanding how ecological shifts affect species persistence is critical to modern management strategies. The edge of a species range is often where physiological tolerances are in conflict with ability to persist. Extreme examples of clonality over large spatial and temporal scales can occur where the life history of a species allows for it. We examine extreme clonality in an aquatic plant species at the edge if its range. Here we describe an ancient seagrass clone of unprecedented size inhabiting a 47 km stretch of a central Florida estuary, the Indian River Lagoon (IRL). Amongst the largest clones on earth detected, this Thalassia testudinum (turtlegrass) genet had ramets dispersed across

SUBMITTER: Bricker E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5897627 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature