Pollen Dispersal Patterns in a Fragmented Population ofCarapa nicaraguensis(Meliaceae)

Abstract

Premise of research. Pollen-dispersal distances may be flexible and dependent on a variety of landscape factors. The study of the effect of plant density and forest fragmentation on dispersal distances is important to understand the response of plant populations to habitat loss or harvesting, especially in tropical timber tree species.Methodology. A comparison was made of the pollen-dispersal curves of the timber tree Carapa nicaraguensis in three different habitats in southern Costa Rica: (i) forest remnants in hills with low density of the study species, (ii) a gallery forest in a swampy area with high density of the study species, and (iii) isolated trees in pastures. Microsatellite genotypes were used to determine the genealogical relationships between adults, seeds, and seedlings collected below tree crowns. Bayesian methods were used to simultaneously estimate the dispersal-distribution parameters, genealogical relationships, genotyping error rates, and numbers of unsampled males.Pivotal results. Th...