Invasive plants are one of the greatest threats to global diversity, yet the mechanisms by which they affect native plants are not well understood. In addition to directly reducing the fitness of native plant populations by competing for resources, invasive plants may disrupt important population properties, such as the extent of clonal reproduction, the proportion of self fertilization, or the fitness differences between self-fertilized and outcrossed individuals. In this study, the investigators will integrate genetic, molecular, and population modeling techniques to determine how the invasive purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) alters these properties in the square-stemmed monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens), and the resulting affects the population fitness of M. ringens.
This will be the first work to characterize the influence of invasive competitors on the fitness effects of self-fertilization in plants. Furthermore, it will quantify the population-level effects of an invasive competitor on a native plant, providing valuable insight to future attempts to predict and manage biological invasions. This research will contribute to the scientific training of undergraduate researchers and the education and management programs at the Shaw Nature Reserve in Missouri, which receives 60,000 visitors every year.
