Regional-scale demography of Ramonda myconi: Remnant population dynamics in a preglacial relict species

Abstract

Remnant population dynamics permit many plant species to persist timespans extending from decades up to several millenia. The regional-scalepersistence of these plant species strictly depends on the persistence of localpopulations within the region. This type of dynamics can explain the existenceof preglacial relict species in the Mediterranean today. We studied thepopulation dynamics of the long-lived iteroparous herb Ramondamyconi, a preglacial relict species with a fragmented distributioninMediterranean mountains, to evaluate the regional-scale persistence of thespecies. Demographic data were collected from 5 populations placed at LaCerdanya Pyrenean region for up to 6 years. The main life-history features ofthis species are the great longevity of adult plants and the high mortality ofseedlings. Matrix population models were used to investigate its demography.Overall, the population growth rate (λ) ranged from a low of 0.79 to ahigh of 1.06. However, λ did not differ significantly from theequilibrium point, as indicated by their confidence intervals, except for onepopulation in one year. Despite the small between-year variation in λ,variation in climatic conditions at La Cerdanya from year to year explained animportant part of such variation. Elasticity analyses were performed toevaluatethe relative importance of demographic parameters for population growth. Stasistransitions made the greatest contribution to λ. Finally, the long-termdynamics of R. myconi populations were analysed byincorporating environmental stochasticity into the models. Projectionsindicatedthat local R. myconi populations tend to decline over timebut with a long time to extinction, so the persistence ofR. myconi all over La Cerdanya is determined by thepersistence of its remnant local populations.