Mother's Age and Hatching Phenology Strategy of Heterocypris incongruens (Crustacea: Ostracoda) in Unpredictable Environment.

We report experimental evidence of egg polyphenism in clonal lineages of Heterocypris incongruens from an ephemeral pond on a Mediterranean Island (Lampedusa, Italy). In controlled laboratory conditions, clonal females produced three different kinds of eggs: (i) resting and desiccation-resistant eggs, (ii) nonresting eggs that hatched gradually within 2 month hydroperiod, and (iii) nonresting delayed development eggs that hatched synchronously. Clonal females showed a diversified bet-hedging strategy to spread risk of reproduction in ponds with unpredictable hydroperiod.

Early and late maternal effects on hatching phenology of Heterocypris incongruens (Crustacea: Ostracoda).

In ephemeral ponds, the hatching asynchrony of resting eggs may be adaptive and the result of a maternal bet-hedging strategy. A mother can influence the progeny phenology through conditions experienced during life cycle even in early development stages. We investigated the consequences of a hatching delay for offspring and compared early and late maternal effects in a clonal lineage of Heterocypris incongruens.

Effect of habitat fragmentation on the genetic diversity and structure of peripheral populations of beech in Central Italy.

Fragmentation can affect the demographic and genetic structure of populations near the boundary of their biogeographic range. Higher genetic differentiation among populations coupled with lower level of within-population variability is expected as a consequence of reduced population size and isolation. The effects of these 2 factors have been rarely disentangled.

Variability of stomatal conductance in a small and isolated population of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.).

We analyzed the response to drought of 420 individuals from eight half-sib families from a small and isolated population of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.): 105 of them were kept in well-watered conditions as control while the remaining 315 were exposed to drought for 27 days. A model describing stomatal behavior derived from Monteith and developed in beech by Leonardi et al.

Phylogenetic relationships of coexisting Heterocypris (Crustacea, Ostracoda) lineages with different reproductive modes from Lampedusa Island (Italy).

Coexisting bisexual and unisexual populations of individuals belonging to the genus Heterocypris are found in ephemeral freshwater ponds on the island of Lampedusa (Pelagie Islands, Italy). Different reproductive modes were associated with a peculiar morphological trait: a lamella hyalina on the posterior margin of the left valve was observed in amphimictic females, a feature missing in apomictic females. In order to clarify the phylogenetic relationships among taxa with different morphological traits and reproductive modes, we used four polymorphic enzyme loci (GPI, ICD2, MPI and PGM) and mitochondrial DNA 16S ribosomal sequences.

A simple general method to evaluate intra-specific transpiration parameters within and among seedling families.

A method to evaluate the genetic control of plant response to increasing soil water deficit is proposed. A description of single tree transpiration behavior was obtained considering parameters independent from air and soil conditions. We removed environmental effects by using two approaches: the normalization of drought data to control (watered) plants and the fitting of a process model.

Evidence of recombination in putative ancient asexuals.

Ancient asexuals have been considered to be a contradiction of the basic tenets of evolutionary theory. Barred from rearranging genetic variation by recombination, their reduced number of gene arrangements is thought to hamper their response to changing environments. For the same reason, it should be difficult for them to avoid the build-up of deleterious mutations.

Spatial autocorrelation and linkage of Mendelian RAPD markers in a population of Picea abies Karst.

The spatial clustering of single- and di-locus genotypes in a natural, continuous population of Norway spruce was investigated using 69 Mendelian Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers that covered about 15 of the species genome, and whose linkage relationships were known. Spatial autocorrelation techniques and randomization tests, applied to both single- and di-locus genotypes, revealed a weak, though significant, spatial structure at the scale 0-200 m (5 of single-locus and 7 of di-locus genotypes). To assess the relative importance of isolation by distance and linkage between markers on their spatial genetic structuring, we grouped joins between sampled trees into equivalence categories expected to show similar, specific patterns of spatial distribution under isolation by distance.