PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 2: Forest Ecology
Monday, August 8, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Cost of Flowering, Fruiting and Seeding as Possible Cause of Mast Seeding in Astragalus scaphoides.
Crone, Elizabeth, Torres, Glendaly *,,
ABSTRACT- Many plants populations reproduce synchronously over time with years of high or low flowering. These fluctuations are known as mast seeding, alternation between years in which the plants have reproductive episodes where they produce flowers and seeds and years in which almost none reproduce. Mast seeding directly affects many processes including plant population dynamics, conflicts beween humans and grizzlie bears, lyme disease and seed consumers. Therefore, understanding the cause of mast seeding has become a subject of great interest. Among many hypotheses for causes of mast seeding, few have been proven or generally accepted. This will determine if pollen coupling is a possible cause for mast seeding in Astragalus scaphoides, a perennial legume. This concept refers to limitation of pollen in yeras of limited flowering so that plants cannot set seed if a plant needs more resources to flower and make fruits than it gains in a year; plants adjust individually to a flowering cycle every 2 or 3 years. Pollen coupling can occur if plants that flower in low-flowering years have enough resources left to flower the next year, because they do not make fruits. chemical analysis will be performed to calculate the quantity of resources such as Carbon, Nitrogen and H2O used by the plant to produce flowers, fruits and seeds. the results of this investigation will give us an idea of whether pollen coupling is possible in Astragalus scaphoides, producing mast seeding as a result.
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