R Code and Data for: High juvenile mortality overwhelms benefits of mating potential for reproductive fitness

Abstract

An individual’s fitness depends not only on its fecundity, but also on the viability of its offspring. Plant ecologists typically equate fecundity, or seed yield, with reproductive fitness, but fecundity might not correspond to offspring survival. Furthermore, individual fecundity and survival of the offspring might respond differently to external factors affecting fitness. One factor that may influence reproductive fitness through effects on both fecundity and offspring survival is mating opportunity, e.g., an individual’s access to potential mates. We investigated the relationship between maternal mating opportunity and both fecundity and offspring survival in populations of a long-lived herbaceous perennial, Echinacea angustifolia. Across seven years and 14 sites, we quantified the mating opportunity of 1279 plants and followed the progeny from these mating bouts over eight subsequent years. We used aster models to evaluate the relationship between mating opportunity and both the number of seedlings emerging and the number of progeny alive after 8 years. Seedling emergence increased strongly with mating opportunity, but we did not detect a significant relationship between progeny count after eight years and mating opportunity. These results show that mating opportunity increases fecundity, but its benefit to overall fitness may be weak.