Reproductive dominance of pasture trees in a fragmented tropical forest mosaic

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1998-07, Vol.281 (5373), p.103-105
• Main Authors: Aldrich, P.R. (University of Georgia, Athens, GA.), Hamrick, J.L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adults; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; AUTOFECONDATION FORCEE; AUTOFECUNDACION; Biodiversity; Biological and medical sciences; Biomarkers; BOSQUE TROPICAL; Botanical research; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; COSTA RICA; DIMENSION; DIMENSIONS; ECOLOGIA; ECOLOGIE; ECOLOGY; FECUNDITY; FERTILIDAD; FERTILITE; FERTILITY; FOREST FRAGMENTATION; Forest genetics; Forest habitats; Forestry; FORET TROPICALE; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetic engineering; Old growth forests; Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking; Pastures; Plant reproduction; Plants; PLANTULAS; PLANTULE; POPULATION ECOLOGY; Rainforests; Recruitment; Retention (Psychology); Saplings; Seed; SEEDLINGS; SELFING; SIZE; SYMPHONIA; SYMPHONIA GLOBULIFERA; Trees; TROPICAL FORESTS
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5373.103

Tropical forest fragmentation threatens biodiversity, yet basic information on population responses for major groups such as plants is lacking. Hypervariable genetic markers were used to reconstruct a population-level pedigree in fragmented tropical forest for the tree Symphonia globulifera. Though seedlings occurred only in remnant forest, the pedigree showed that most seedlings had been produced by sequentially fewer adults in pasture, creating a genetic bottleneck. The pedigree also implicated shifts in the foraging of animals that disperse pollen and seed in a secondary constriction of the bottleneck. These results suggest that tropical conservation strategies should anticipate complex, cryptic responses to fragmentation