BIOL 5240 Fall 2005

Ecological Genetics

 

11/30/05 Study Questions:

 

IM Parker, J Rodriguez and ME Loik. 2003. An evolutionary approach to understanding the biology of invasions: Local adaptation and general-purpose genotypes in the weed Verbascum thapsus.

 

Quick Quiz Questions

 

  1. Why may it be unreliable to predict the potential range of invasive species based on environmental variables in the species native range?

 

 

 

  1. What are two ways genetically based mechanisms by which an invasive species can adapt to novel environments in its new range?  Which of these is supported by this study?

 

 

 

 

  1. What hypotheses do the authors propose to explain why Verbascum thapsus has not invaded higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada.

 

 

 

 

  1. How were maternal effects controlled in the experimental design?

 

 

 

  1. How did they test performance to high elevation environments?  What traits did the chose and why?

 

 

 

 

  1. What is the significance of the pattern shown in Figure 6?