Abstract
Microorganisms are ubiquitous and thought to regulate host populations. Although microorganisms can be pathogenic and affect components of fitness, few studies have examined their effects on wild plant populations. As individual traits might not contribute equally to changes in population growth rate, it is essential to examine the entire life cycle to determine how microorganisms affect host population dynamics. In this study, we used data from common garden experiments with plants from three Cucurbita pepo populations exposed to three virus treatments. These data were used to parameterize a deterministic matrix model, which allowed us to estimate the effect of virus on components of fitness and population growth rate. Virus did not reduce fruit number, but population growth rates varied among virus treatments and wild C. pepo populations. The effect of virus on population growth rate depended on virus species and wild C. pepo population. Contributions of life-history transitions and life-history traits to population growth rates varied among populations and virus treatments. However, this population-virus interaction was not evident when examining individual components of fitness. Thus, caution must be used when interpreting the effects of changes in individual traits, as single traits do not always predict population-level change accurately.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Virus did not reduce fruit number.
- Taxon
- Cucurbita pepo
Cucurbita pepot0 - Treatment
- Viruse0
- Outcome
- fruit numbere0
- Direction
- did not reducee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Virus did not reduce fruit number”
t0“Cucurbita pepo”
Claim · model-written summary
Population growth rates varied among virus treatments and wild populations.
- Taxon
- C. pepoCucurbita pepoe0
- Treatment
- virus treatmentse0
- Outcome
- population growth ratese0
- Direction
- variede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“population growth rates varied among virus treatments and wild C. pepo populations”
Claim · model-written summary
The effect of virus on population growth rate depended on virus species and population.
- Taxon
- C. pepoCucurbita pepoe0
- Treatment
- viruse0
- Outcome
- population growth ratee0
- Qualifier
- virus species and wild C. pepo populatione0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The effect of virus on population growth rate depended on virus species and wild C. pepo population”
Claim · model-written summary
Contributions of life-history transitions and traits to population growth rates varied among populations and virus treatments.
- Taxon
- Cucurbita pepoCucurbita pepot0
- Treatment
- virus treatmentse0
- Outcome
- Contributions of life-history transitions and life-history traits to population growth ratese0
- Direction
- variede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Contributions of life-history transitions and life-history traits to population growth rates varied among populations and virus treatments”
t0“Cucurbita pepo”
Claim · model-written summary
The population-virus interaction was not evident for individual fitness components.
- Taxon
- Cucurbita pepoCucurbita pepot0
- Outcome
- population-virus interaction was not evident when examining individual components of fitnesse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“this population-virus interaction was not evident when examining individual components of fitness”
t0“Cucurbita pepo”