2016 Research Brief
Description
In northern, southern, coastal, and interior California, examples exist of paired sibling Arctostaphylos subspecies exhibiting two alternate life strategies for surviving disturbance: resprouting and obligate seeding. This is a wonderful opportunity to observe how natural selection might favor one life strategy type over another, particularly in “an era of rapid climate change."
Contact
For more information, contact: jon_keeley@usgs.gov, marti_witter@nps.gov, evanmantgem@usgs.gov
Additional Information
Keeley, J. E., V.T. Parker, and M.C. Vasey. 2016. Resprouting and seeding hypotheses: a test of the gap-dependent model using resprouting and obligate seeding subspecies of Arctostaphylos. Plant Ecology 217:743–750. DOI: 10.1007/s11258-015-0551-ze