Date of Award

2018

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Awarded

Master of Science (MS)

Program

Environmental and Conservation Science

Department

Biological Sciences

College

Graduate and Interdisciplinary Studies

Faculty Advisor

Travers, Steven

Description

Ecosystems across a landscape can vary in their selection pressures and therefore can vary in the species that are able to survive there. Selection pressures applied on a species found in multiple ecosystems may lead to a divergence into different taxa adapted to different selective conditions. One such soil condition with strong selection pressures are serpentine soils. They are unique in that they have low levels of essential nutrients, specifically calcium, and high levels of heavy metals. To examine the effect of serpentine-like conditions on a model plant species, I grew Brassica rapa in a low calcium hydroponic environment and selected the most tolerant individuals within a population. After three generations, life history variables didn’t change in comparison to controls, except dry mass. This could indicate that this population is at the beginning of a longer term evolutionary divergence. More generations of selection are needed to confirm this idea.

Rights

NDSU Policy 190.6.2

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0001-8687-4873

Handle Identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/10365/29230

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