Conditions for protected polymorphism in subdivided plant populations: 1. Uniform pollen dispersal (Q793661)

A discrete-time deterministic model for plant species populations is considered which are subdivided into a constant number of patches, called ''ecodemes''. Sexual and environmental effects are included in the model as follows: It is assumed that each seed grows up in close spacial vicinity to the mother plant (i.e. in the same ecodeme), while each pollen is widely dispersed and thus represents a gamete randomly drawn out of the pollen pool of the whole population. Furthermore, selection coefficients which include both viability and female or male fertility effects are supposed to depend on the ecodeme characteristics. The dynamics of this model with two alleles were investigated and conditions for protection of alleles were derived. Thus, if no selection among female genotypes exists, then simple heterozygote superiority in the males can guarantee protection. If, however, male heterozygotes are at least twice as fit as homozygotes, then polymorphism is protected independently of the degree of selection in females. Moreover, it is shown that decreasing the variance of the female selection values - which is a measure of inter-demic variability - also decreases protectedness. However, this is not necessarily true for male selection values.