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- Title
MUTUALISTS AND ANTAGONISTS MEDIATE FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION ON FLORAL DISPLAY.
- Authors
Per Torāng; Johan Ehrlén; Jon Ågren
- Abstract
Theory predicts that, with conflicting selection pressures mediated by mutualists and antagonists, alternative reproductive strategies can be maintained by negative frequency-dependent selection if it results in rare-morph advantage. We combined field experiments and surveys of natural populations to determine whether !election on floral display is frequency dependent in the self-incompatible herb Primula farinosa, which is polymorphic for inflorescence height and occurs in a short-scaped and a long-scaped morph. Among short-scaped plants, both pollination success, quantified as initiation of fruits and seeds, and seed predation were positively correlated with the relative frequency of the long-scaped morph. The relative strength of these effects and the direction of the resulting frequency-dependent selection on scape morph varied among years and populations. The results suggest that both mutualists and antagonists may mediate frequency-dependent selection and that frequency dependence may vary from positive to negative with rare-morph advantage, depending on the relative strength of these interactions.
- Subjects
HERBS; PRIMROSES; INFLORESCENCES; POLLINATION; BOTANY; FRUIT; SEEDS
- Publication
Ecology, 2008, Vol 89, Issue 6, p1564
- ISSN
0012-9658
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1890/07-1283.1