Conradina Glabra Jason Bladow
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2010 The Role of Environment and Genetics in the Demography of Introduced and Natural Populations of the Endangered Shrub Conradina Glabra Jason Bladow Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENT AND GENETICS IN THE DEMOGRAPHY OF INTRODUCED AND NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THE ENDANGERED SHRUB CONRADINA GLABRA By JASON BLADOW A Thesis submitted to the Department of Biological Science in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Science Degree Awarded: Fall Semester 2010 The members of the committee approve the thesis of Jason Bladow defended on October 18th, 2010. __________________________________ Alice Winn Professor Directing Thesis __________________________________ Nora Underwood Committee Member __________________________________ Austin Mast Committee Member Approved: _____________________________________ P. Bryant Chase, Chair, Department of Biological Science The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all of the individuals involved in the completion of my research. Thank you to Austin Mast and Nora Underwood whose comments have helped improve this document. Special thanks belongs to my advisor Alice Winn for the opportunity to expand my scientific expertise and the time she graciously spent making suggestions to improve documents and presentations. The Florida Native Plant Society supplied a grant for this research and without which this research could not have taken place. Thank you very much. Credit belongs to David Prentice of The Nature Conservancy, and Tova Spector of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for allowing me the privilege to study Conradina glabra. I am grateful to the staff of The Nature Conservancy, Torreya State Park, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for their assistance with my research. I would also like to thank Doria Gordon of the Nature Conservancy for providing old data from the previous introductions of Conradina glabra as well as census data from successive years. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables .......................................................................................................................v List of Figures.................................................................................................................... vi Abstract............................................................................................................................ viii 1. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................1 2. A DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF INTRODUCED AND NATURAL POPULATIONS OF CONRADINA GLABRA .............................................................2 Introduction..............................................................................................................2 Method .....................................................................................................................4 Results....................................................................................................................12 Discussion..............................................................................................................24 3. THE EFFECTS OF INBREEDING ON THE DEMOGRAPHY OF AN ENDANGERED PLANT CONRADINA GLABRA ...................................................29 Introduction............................................................................................................29 Methods..................................................................................................................31 Results....................................................................................................................35 Discussion..............................................................................................................39 4. CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................43 APPENDIX A....................................................................................................................44 APPENDIX B ....................................................................................................................45 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................47 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .............................................................................................51 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 The Stage Classes of C. glabra...........................................................................6 Table 1.2 Regression equations used to calculate fecundity from plant size......................8 Table 1.3 The number of stage classes and the breaks between them as determined by the Vandermeer-Moloney algorithm.........................................12 Table 1.4 Estimates of lambda and bootstrapped 95% confidence limits for six study populations. .............................................................................................14 Table 1.5 Means for percent soil moisture and the proportion of area occupied by vegetation, bare ground, and litter at each population. .....................................23 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Life cycle of Conradina glabra.........................................................................7 Figure 1.2 Transition matrices for three introduced and three natural populations..........13 Figure 1.3 Aggregate matrices combining the three populations from each site..............14 Figure 1.4 The frequency of the predicted stage class distribution, compared with the actual distribution.......................................................................................15 Figure 1.5 The stage class frequency distribution for each of six populations of C. glabra at the first census..................................................................................16 Figure 1.6 Sensitivity of Lambda to each element of the transition matrix for each population ........................................................................................................18 Figure 1.7 The summed elasticity for each transition type for each population...............19 Figure 1.8 Sensitivity of Lambda to each matrix element for aggregate matrices for each type of population. .............................................................................20 Figure 1.9 Elasticity values for each element of the aggregate matrices for each type of population. ...........................................................................................21 Figure 1.10 Life Table Response Experiment results........................................................22 Figure 2.1 The average number of seeds per flower produced by each pollination treatment. .........................................................................................................36 Figure 2.2 The germination rate for inbred and outcrossed seeds for each population ........................................................................................................37 Figure 2.3 Matrices for naturally pollinated plants for each population and the same matrices with fecundity values recalculated to reflect the effect of inbreeding depression..................................................................................38 Figure A.1 The LTRE matrix resulting from the analysis.................................................44 Figure A.2 The difference matrix resulting from the subtraction of the natural aggregate matrix from the introduced aggregate matrix ..................................................44 Figure A.3 The sensitivity matrix calculated for the mean matrix of the aggregate natural matrix and the introduced matrix.....................................................................44 vi Figure B.1 Sensitivity matrices for the inbred matrices and original unmodified demographic matrices. .....................................................................................45 Figure B.2 Original elasticity matrix values for each transition types as well as predicted sensitivity values for the modified matrices reflecting the effects of total selfing...............................................................................................................46 vii ABSTRACT Biodiversity continues to decline as many species face extinction. One way to mitigate possible extinction is to introduce new populations of a species to locations that the species does not currently occupy. Such introductions can sometimes fail due to environmental factors or to genetic problems that may arise from small population size. Monitoring introduced populations and collecting data can identify reasons for the success or failure of an introduction and provide valuable information for future management efforts. To evaluate the success of introductions, demographic models can be constructed and analyzed to determine if populations are growing and to identify parts of the life cycle that contribute most to the population growth rate. Conradina glabra is an endangered shrub that was introduced to three sites at the Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve in Liberty County, Florida 1991. Three introduced