Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment
Non-marine aquatic vascular plants generally show broad distributional ranges. Climatic factors seem to have limited effects on their distributions, besides the determination of major disjunctions (tropical-temperate-subarctic). Dispersal should have been frequent enough to assure the quick colonisa...
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Online Access: | https://pure.knaw.nl/portal/en/publications/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1146-609X(02)01146-3 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11755/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 |
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ftknawnlpublic:oai:pure.knaw.nl:publications/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 2024-09-15T18:38:05+00:00 Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment Santamaria, L. 2002 https://pure.knaw.nl/portal/en/publications/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1146-609X(02)01146-3 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11755/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 eng eng https://pure.knaw.nl/portal/en/publications/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess Santamaria , L 2002 , ' Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment ' , Acta Oecologica , vol. 23 , no. 3 , pp. 137-154 . https://doi.org/10.1016/S1146-609X(02)01146-3 article 2002 ftknawnlpublic https://doi.org/10.1016/S1146-609X(02)01146-320.500.11755/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 2024-08-05T23:38:06Z Non-marine aquatic vascular plants generally show broad distributional ranges. Climatic factors seem to have limited effects on their distributions, besides the determination of major disjunctions (tropical-temperate-subarctic). Dispersal should have been frequent enough to assure the quick colonisation of extensive areas following glacial retreat, but dispersal limitation is still apparent in areas separated by geographic barriers. Aquatic vascular plants also show limited taxonomic differentiation and low within-species genetic variation. Variation within populations is particularly low, but variation among populations seems to be relatively high, mainly due to the persistence of long-lived clones. Ecotypic differentiation is often related to factors that constrain clonal reproduction (salinity and ephemeral inundation). Inland aquatic habitats are heterogeneous environments, but this heterogeneity largely occurs at relatively small scales (within waterbodies and among neighbouring ones). They also represent a stressful environment for plants, characterised by low carbon availability, shaded conditions, sediment anoxia, mechanical damage by currents and waves, significant restrictions to sexual reproduction, and sometimes also osmotic stress and limited nutrient supply. I propose that the generality of broad distributions and low differentiation among the inland aquatic flora is best explained by a combination of: (1) selection for stress-tolerant taxa with broad tolerance ranges. (2) The selective advantages provided by clonal growth and multiplication, which increases plant tolerance to stress, genet survivorship and population viability. (3) Long-distance dispersal of sexual propagules and high local dispersal of asexual clones. (4) The generality of broad plastic responses, promoted by the combination of clonal growth, high local dispersal, small-scale spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability. [KEYWORDS: Aquatic angiosperms; Clonal reproduction; Dispersal; Genetic variation; Geographic distribution; ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Subarctic Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Research Portal (KNAW) Acta Oecologica 23 3 137 154 |
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Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Research Portal (KNAW) |
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ftknawnlpublic |
language |
English |
description |
Non-marine aquatic vascular plants generally show broad distributional ranges. Climatic factors seem to have limited effects on their distributions, besides the determination of major disjunctions (tropical-temperate-subarctic). Dispersal should have been frequent enough to assure the quick colonisation of extensive areas following glacial retreat, but dispersal limitation is still apparent in areas separated by geographic barriers. Aquatic vascular plants also show limited taxonomic differentiation and low within-species genetic variation. Variation within populations is particularly low, but variation among populations seems to be relatively high, mainly due to the persistence of long-lived clones. Ecotypic differentiation is often related to factors that constrain clonal reproduction (salinity and ephemeral inundation). Inland aquatic habitats are heterogeneous environments, but this heterogeneity largely occurs at relatively small scales (within waterbodies and among neighbouring ones). They also represent a stressful environment for plants, characterised by low carbon availability, shaded conditions, sediment anoxia, mechanical damage by currents and waves, significant restrictions to sexual reproduction, and sometimes also osmotic stress and limited nutrient supply. I propose that the generality of broad distributions and low differentiation among the inland aquatic flora is best explained by a combination of: (1) selection for stress-tolerant taxa with broad tolerance ranges. (2) The selective advantages provided by clonal growth and multiplication, which increases plant tolerance to stress, genet survivorship and population viability. (3) Long-distance dispersal of sexual propagules and high local dispersal of asexual clones. (4) The generality of broad plastic responses, promoted by the combination of clonal growth, high local dispersal, small-scale spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability. [KEYWORDS: Aquatic angiosperms; Clonal reproduction; Dispersal; Genetic variation; Geographic distribution; ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Santamaria, L. |
spellingShingle |
Santamaria, L. Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment |
author_facet |
Santamaria, L. |
author_sort |
Santamaria, L. |
title |
Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment |
title_short |
Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment |
title_full |
Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment |
title_fullStr |
Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment |
title_full_unstemmed |
Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment |
title_sort |
why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment |
publishDate |
2002 |
url |
https://pure.knaw.nl/portal/en/publications/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1146-609X(02)01146-3 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11755/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 |
genre |
Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Subarctic |
op_source |
Santamaria , L 2002 , ' Why are most aquatic plants widely distributed? Dispersal, clonal growth and small-scale heterogeneity in a stressful environment ' , Acta Oecologica , vol. 23 , no. 3 , pp. 137-154 . https://doi.org/10.1016/S1146-609X(02)01146-3 |
op_relation |
https://pure.knaw.nl/portal/en/publications/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1146-609X(02)01146-320.500.11755/2ab6b1c9-5346-4377-9731-c8b9c2868282 |
container_title |
Acta Oecologica |
container_volume |
23 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
137 |
op_container_end_page |
154 |
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1810482420168785920 |