Effect of climatic variables and vegetative growth on the reproductive effort of the genus Descurainia in the Canary Islands
Keywords:
Climate change, conservation, Canarian flora, flowers, oceanic islandsAbstract
Canary Islands conserve an important biodiversity of endemic flora, a list that continues to grow with numerous recent studies. However, there are few studies on the functional traits of species, especially those involving direct field measurements, despite the importance this may have in the context of current climate change. Variations in vegetative and reproductive productivity rates between populations on different islands, or within the same island, may imply differences in responsiveness to climate change. Here we analyse the reproductive effort of Descurainia species in the Canary Islands, with the aim of assessing whether there are interspecific and intrapopulation differences
in this functional trait. In addition, the aim is to determine which of the two types of variables (climatic or morphometric) has greater weight in explaining the reproductive success of the species of the genus. For this purpose, 45 individuals were randomly selected from three populations distributed in each island. Each individual was measured and the number of flowers and seeds per unit area (cm2) was estimated. Results show significant differences between species and between populations. Furthermore, the models obtained indicate that climatic variables explain reproductive success better than morphometric variables.
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References
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