9520611 Mazer The focus of the proposed research is to better understand competition for reproduction among plants. Plants that produce flowers will compete because ultimately there are many more pollen grains produced than there are flowers to be fertilized. The experiments proposed will focus on the competition that occurs after pollination. One consequence of competition during this phase is that some individuals may father more seeds in the next generation than other individuals. Are there differences among plants in this ability? What influences how well a plant's pollen performs during this phase? The investigators will examine elements of the environment and of the plant itself to determine: 1) how these factors influence a plant's success during the post-pollination phase; 2) the number of seeds fathered following competition; 3) pollen performance on burned and unburned habitats; and 4) success by plants competing for flowers with varying morphologies. Flowering plants may have invaded so many niches in the world because of their ability to remove inferior genes through the type of competition described above. Thus this research may have important implications for all flowering plants. Moreover, the research may yield information useful in applied fields, as understanding of pollen competition could be applied to improvements in crop species.
