CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Over the past two decades there has been much research to determine habitat fragmentation effects on the mutualistic interactions involved in sexual plant reproduction and seed dispersal, which shape the reproductive success and genetic characteristics of remnant populations. Reduced area of remaining natural habitats and hostile agricultural matrices reduce pollinator richness and abundance. As a result plant populations produce on average less quantity of progeny in fragmented habitats. An equally important but a less-well recognized feature of plant reproduction is the genetic and biological quality of progeny, which represents the complementary aspect of the reproductive event as it determines the recruitment and survival potential of plant populations. Here we show results of a systematic literature review to determine overall habitat fragmentation effects on the genetic characteristics of progeny and on progeny performance. We found strong overall negative fragmentation effects on progeny performance in 105 unique plant species across the world. Progeny performance of pioneer species were significantly less affected than late successional species. Progeny generated in fragmented landscapes were genetically less diverse and showed higher inbreeding coefficients than progeny from continuous habitats. Interestingly, we also found a significant negative relationship between progeny performance and inbreeding coefficients: individuals with higher inbreeding coefficients showed lower performance in fragmented habitats. Our results indicate that fragmentation effects on progeny performance is mostly due to changes in mating patterns elicited by pollinators, increasing self-pollination and/or mating among relatives. We discuss the implications of these findings for long-term plant population persistence in ubiquitous fragmented landscapes. Pg. 18 del Libro de Resumenes