Is Biomass a Reliable Estimate of Plant Fitness?

The measurement of fitness is critical to biological research. Although the determination of fitness for some organisms may be relatively straightforward under controlled conditions, it is often a difficult or nearly impossible task in nature. Plants are no exception. The potential for long-distance...

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Published inApplications in plant sciences Vol. 5; no. 2
Main Authors Younginger, Brett S, Sirová, Dagmara, Cruzan, Mitchell B, Ballhorn, Daniel J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Botanical Society of America 01.02.2017
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Subjects
Animal reproduction
Asexual reproduction
Biomass
Conspecifics
Controlled conditions
Dispersal
Estimates
Fecundity
Fitness
Fruits
Growth rate
Herbivores
Hypotheses
Literature reviews
perennials
plant performance
Plant sciences
pollen flow
Population
Researchers
Review
REVIEW ARTICLE
Seeds
selection
Success
biomass
plant performance
selection
fitness
fecundity
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Summary:The measurement of fitness is critical to biological research. Although the determination of fitness for some organisms may be relatively straightforward under controlled conditions, it is often a difficult or nearly impossible task in nature. Plants are no exception. The potential for long-distance pollen dispersal, likelihood of multiple reproductive events per inflorescence, varying degrees of reproductive growth in perennials, and asexual reproduction all confound accurate fitness measurements. For these reasons, biomass is frequently used as a proxy for plant fitness. However, the suitability of indirect fitness measurements such as plant size is rarely evaluated. This review outlines the important associations between plant performance, fecundity, and fitness. We make a case for the reliability of biomass as an estimate of fitness when comparing conspecifics of the same age class. We reviewed 170 studies on plant fitness and discuss the metrics commonly employed for fitness estimations. We find that biomass or growth rate are frequently used and often positively associated with fecundity, which in turn suggests greater overall fitness. Our results support the utility of biomass as an appropriate surrogate for fitness under many circumstances, and suggest that additional fitness measures should be reported along with biomass or growth rate whenever possible.
Bibliography:The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and discussion. Funding by Portland State University, the Botanical Society of America, the J. W. Fulbright Commission of the Czech Republic, and the National Science Foundation (grant 1340746 to M.B.C. and grant 1457369 to D.J.B.) is gratefully acknowledged.
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ISSN:2168-0450
2168-0450
DOI:10.3732/apps.1600094