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Data from: Pollen limitation and its influence on natural selection through seed set

Bartkowska, Magdalena P., Dalhousie University
Johnston, Mark O., Dalhousie University
Published Sep 16, 2015 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cv461

Cite this dataset

Bartkowska, Magdalena P.; Johnston, Mark O. (2015). Data from: Pollen limitation and its influence on natural selection through seed set [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cv461

Abstract

Stronger pollen limitation should increase competition among plants, leading to stronger selection on traits important for pollen receipt. The few explicit tests of this hypothesis, however, have provided conflicting support. Using the arithmetic relationship between these two quantities, we show that increased pollen limitation will automatically result in stronger selection (all else equal) although other factors can alter selection independently of pollen limitation. We then test the hypothesis using two approaches. First, we analyze published studies containing information on both pollen limitation and selection. Second, we explore how natural selection measured in one Ontario population of Lobelia cardinalis over three years and two Michigan populations in one year relates to pollen limitation. For the Ontario population we also explore whether pollinator-mediated selection is related to pollen limitation. Consistent with the hypothesis, we find an overall positive relationship between selection strength and pollen limitation both among species and within L. cardinalis. Unexpectedly, this relationship holds even for vegetative traits among species, and was not found in L. cardinalis for pollinator-mediated selection on nearly all trait types.

Usage notes

Lobelia cardinalis traits and fitness 2009 2010 and 2011

This is a comma separated file, which contains the observations of fitness (seed number and fruit number) along with six plant traits (anther-nectary distance, flower width, length to last flower, flower number, daily floral display and median-flower date. There are three years of observations and two treatments (under the column heading "Pop" s1 refers to naturally pollinated plants and s2 is for hand-pollinated plants).
part2_all_years_data_for_pub.csv

Literature survey of selection and pollen limitation

The data is summary of the literature survey used to explore the relationship between selection and pollen limitation. Using Web of Science, we searched for studies citing Lande and Arnold (1983).Based on publication title, 396 studies were found to contain selection estimate(s) for a natural population. For each of these studies, we searched for the occurrence of the words "pollen”, “limitation”, or “limited”. If any of the words was found, the abstract and/or methods of the study were read to determine whether an estimate of selection was reported as well as an estimate of pollen limitation. For each study we categorized traits into the following five classes: flower size, flower number, plant size, phenology and vegetative. Because different fitness measures were used to assess pollen limitation and a single study often reported multiple estimates, we used the “best pollen limitation" estimate available” by prioritizing the estimates from each study as follows: (1) mean number (or percentage) of seeds, (2) mean number (or percentage) of fruits, (3) mean number (or percentage) of seeds per flower, (4) mean number (or percentage) of seeds per fruit, (5) mean number (or percentage) of fruits per flower and (6) mean number (or percentage) of seeds per ovule.
part1_data_for_pub.csv

Location

Ontario Canada