The effective conservation of threatened and endangered plants requires an understanding of population dynamics and the
evaluation of factors that could reduce population growth. I constructed and analyzed a stage structured demographic model for Euphorbia
telephioides, a threatened dioecious perennial herb, to determine the current status of three populations, compare projections of
population growth using different methods, and determine the effects of pollen limitation in the population dynamics of this species.
Dioecious plants are prone to pollen limitation due to their inability to self-pollinate. Studies indicate that pollen limitation reduces
seed set in plants due to insufficient quantity or quality of pollen, which can reduce population growth rate due to the decrease in
fecundity. I combined experimental tests for pollen limitation with construction and analysis of structured demographic models, to examine
how increased levels of pollen limitation would affect population growth rates. Determining the current status of populations, and
simulating the consequences of possible threats, such as pollen limitation, provides a quantitative basis for conservation actions. I
compared deterministic and stochastic projections of a stage structured demographic model to examine how environmental variation affects
population growth rates, and I examined the effects of parameterizing the model excluding demographic measures of randomly marked
individuals in the population growth rates (Lambda). The majority of estimated lambdas and their 95% confidence intervals indicate that
these three populations are projected to decline. Lambda estimated excluding randomly marked individuals overestimated population growth
because adult plants had 100% survival. I did not find evidence of significant pollen limitation of fruit or seed production, and
simulations of increased levels of pollen limitation reduce Lambda at a modest rate between 0.17% to 1.91%. The main advantage of
constructing a structured demographic model is that these models allow us to integrate data on different stages of a complex life cycle.
In the case of E. telephioides elasticity analysis indicates that increasing stasis of non-flowering plants could lead to increasing
population growth rates. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Biological Science in partial fulfillment of the Master of
Science. / Fall Semester 2016. / November 2, 2016. / Euphorbia telephioides, Population ecology / Includes bibliographical references. / Alice Winn, Professor Directing Thesis; Joseph Travis, Committee Member; Nora Underwood,
Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_405621 |
| Contributors | Ramirez-Bullon, Natali Rubi (authoraut), Winn, Alice A. (professor directing thesis), Travis, Joseph, 1953- (committee member), Underwood, Nora (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Biological Science (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (75 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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