The functional trait machine used in the Kittelson et al. paper.
In 2015, we continued to study the effects of inbreeding on Echinacea angustifolia fitness. This experiment was planted in 2001 where each plant was produced from one of three cross types, depending on the relatedness of the parents: between maternal half siblings; between plants from the same remnant, but not sharing a maternal or paternal parent; and between individuals from different remnants. We continued to measure fitness and flowering phenology in these plants.
This year, of the original 557 plants in INB1, 157 were still alive. Of the plants that were alive this year, 23.4% were flowering and 24.9% have never flowered. Among the plants that were flowering, average head counts was 2, with a maximum of six heads.
Read previous posts about this experiment.
Start year: 2001
Location: Experimental plot 1
Overlaps with: Phenology and fitness in P1
Products:The team collected fitness measurements during our annual assessment of fitness in all plants in P1.
The below papers were published in summer 2015:
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
Shaw, R. G., S. Wagenius and C. J. Geyer. 2015. The susceptibility of Echinacea angustifolia to a specialist aphid: eco-evolutionary perspective on genotypic variation and demographic consequences. Journal of Ecology 103:809-818. PDF
