The genecology of salt marsh plants
In: Hydrobiological Bulletin. Netherlands Hydrobiological Society: Amsterdam. ISSN 0165-1404; e-ISSN 2214-708X, more
Also appears in:(1974). Proceedings of the International Symposium on Ecology and Physiology of the Brackish Environment, Amsterdam, September 4-7, 1973. Organized by the Netherlands Hydrobiological Society in honour of the Dutch hydrobiologist Dr. H.C. Redeke (1873-1945). Hydrobiological Bulletin, 8(1-2). Netherlands Hydrobiological Society: Amsterdam. 252 pp., more
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| Keywords |
Ecology
Water bodies > Inland waters > Wetlands > Marshes > Salt marshes
Marine/Coastal; Terrestrial |
| Abstract |
(1) Salt marshes lie on the interface zone between totally marine and totally terrestrial environments and are characterized by both linear variation patterns (gradients) and point-to-point variation patterns (mosaics).The variability in some examples of flowering plant species commonly found on salt marshes suggests that disruptive selection in this heterogeneous environment has led to wide adaptive divergence. (2) In particular populations of those species with high ecological amplitudes are likely to exhibit wide variability. (3) Studies on such a species Aster tripolium, using mainly collateral cultivation techniques, have revealed habitat-correlated variation in life cycle, fruit size and number, and germination requirements, all characters of fundamental biological significance. (4) The response to salt marsh environments included both genetic change and phenotypic plasticity. The importance in future work of identifying to which selective aspects of the environments particular characters are responding is emphasized, together with the need to evaluate, especially in perennial species, the respective roles of genetic and plastic responses. |
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