Reina, Pamela, and Mike with the photosynthesis machine used in Kittelson et al. (2015)
In 2015, we continued to study the effects of inbreeding on Echinacea angustifolia fitness. This experiment was planted in 2006 where each plant was produced from one of three cross types: between maternal half siblings; between plants originating from the same remnant, but not sharing a maternal parent; and between individuals from different remnants. We continued to measure fitness and flowering phenology in these plants.
This year, of the original 1443 plants in INB2, 561 were still alive. Of the plants that were alive this year, 8.3% were flowering and 76.3% have never flowered – we’re still waiting! Among the plants that were flowering, mean head count was 1.53 heads, with a maximum of five heads.
Read more posts about this experiment here.
Start year: 2006
Location: Experimental plot 1
Overlaps with: Phenology and fitness in P1
Products: Fitness measurements were collected during our annual assessment of fitness in P1.
The following paper was published in summer 2015 based on fieldwork conducted in 2013.
Kittelson, P., S. Wagenius, R. Nielsen, S. Qazi, M. Howe, G. Kiefer, and R. G. Shaw. 2015. Leaf functional traits, herbivory, and genetic diversity in Echinacea: Implications for fragmented populations. Ecology 96:1877–1886. PDF
