Ó Springer 2005
Plant Ecology (2005) DOI 10.1007/s11258-005-9082-3
The effects of plant density upon pollination success, reproductive effort and fruit parasitism in Cistus ladanifer L. (Cistaceae) D.B. Metcalfe1,2,* and W.E. Kunin1 1
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK; School of Geosciences, Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, Scotland, UK; *Author for correspondence (e-mail:
[email protected]; phone: +44-131-6509170) 2
Received 21 May 2005; accepted in revised form 20 November 2005
Key words: Competition, Density dependence, Reproduction, Resource allocation
Abstract Human activity often causes a decline in the local density of plant populations. Below some critical lower density, populations may suffer a progressive decline in reproductive success because of the difficulties associated with finding suitable mates. Therefore, to conserve endangered plant species it is necessary to understand in greater detail how changes in population density affect different determinants of plant reproductive success. We simultaneously recorded individual plant pollination success, reproductive effort and fruit parasitism in three populations of Cistus ladanifer L. in eastern Portugal. Pollination success declined significantly as distance to the nearest conspecific increased (p
