Population isolation shapes plant genetics, phenotype and germination in naturally patchy ecosystems
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Habitat connectivity is important in conservation since isolation can diminish the potential of a population for adaptation and increase its risk of extinction. However, conservation of naturally patchy ecosystems such as peatlands has mainly focused on preserving specific sites with exceptional characteristics, neglecting the potential interconnectivity between patches. In order to better understand plant dynamics within a peatland network, we assessed the effect of population isolation on genetic distinctiveness, phenotypic variations and germination rates using the peatland-obligate white-fringed orchid (Platanthera blephariglottis). Fifteen phenotypic traits were measured for 24 individuals per population (20 distinct populations, Quebec, Canada) and germination rates of nearly 20000 seeds were assessed. Genetic distinctiveness was quantified for 26 populations using single nucleotide polymorphism markers obtained via a pooled genotyping-by-sequencing approach. Geographic isolation was measured as the distance to the nearest population and as the number of populations occurring in concentric buffer zones (within a radius of 2, 5 and 10 km) around the studied populations. All phenotypic traits showed significant differences among populations. Genetic results also indicated a pattern of isolation-by-distance, which suggests that seed and/or pollen exchange is restricted geographically. Finally, all phenotypic traits, as well as a reduced germination rate, were correlated with either geographic isolation or genetic distance. We conclude that geographic isolation likely restricts gene flow, which in turn may affect germination. Consequently, it is imperative that conservation programs take into account the patchy nature of such ecosystems, rather than targeting a few specific sites with exceptional character for preservation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".