Data from: Pollen diversity matters: revealing the neglected effect of pollen diversity on fitness in fragmented landscapes

Few studies have documented the impacts of habitat fragmentation on plant mating patterns together with fitness. Yet, these processes require urgent attention to better understand the impact of contemporary landscape change on biodiversity and for guiding native plant genetic resource management. We examined these relationships using the predominantly insect-pollinated Eucalyptus socialis. Progeny were collected from trees located in three increasingly disturbed landscapes in southern Australia and were planted out in common garden experiments. We show that individual mating patterns were increasingly impacted by lower conspecific density caused by habitat fragmentation. We determined that reduced pollen diversity, not inbreeding, was the factor that best explained variation in progeny growth. This provides an alternative mechanistic explanation for the indirect density dependence often inferred between conspecific density and offspring fitness. Consequently, native plant genetic resource management should be refined from not only attempting to avoid inbreeding but also to encourage pollen diversity.鲜有研究记录生境破碎化对植物交配模式及其适合度的综合影响。然而，为深入理解当代景观变化对生物多样性的影响，并指导本土植物遗传资源管理工作，上述研究方向亟需得到重视。本研究以主要依赖昆虫传粉的韧皮桉（Eucalyptus socialis）为研究对象，探讨了上述关联。研究人员从澳大利亚南部三处受干扰程度逐渐递增的生境中的母树上采集子代材料，并将其种植于同质种植园开展实验。结果表明，生境破碎化导致的同种个体密度降低，会对植株的交配模式产生愈发显著的影响。本研究证实，能够最佳解释子代生长差异的因素是花粉多样性降低，而非近交。这为学界常推测的同种密度与子代适合度之间的间接密度依赖关系提供了新的机理性解释。因此，本土植物遗传资源管理策略需要进一步优化，不仅要规避近交风险，还应注重提升花粉多样性。