Spatial and genetic structure of two sandhills oaks:Quercus laevisandQuercus margaretta(Fagaceae)

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Abstract
Quercus laevisWalt, (turkey oak) andQ. margarettaAshe (scrubby post oak) are important scrub oaks in the sandhills forest communities of the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. We used allozyme loci and Ripley's L‐statistics to examine clonal structure and spatial dispersion in these species.Q. laevisgreater than 1.5 m in height were randomly dispersed on a scale of 0–40 m; smaller individuals (< 1.5 m) were slightly clustered on a scale of 0–12 m. Larger individuals separated by ≤1 m had 15% probability of being ramets of the same clone.Q. margarettashowed strong clustering on a scale of 0–20 m. Stems separated by ≤ 1 m had a 71% probability of being ramets of the same clone. Clonal offspring were strongly clustered about the presumed clonal parent: 50% fell within 0.50 m of this individual. Simulation modeling and direct comparison of adult and juvenile genotypes indicated that acorns are dispersed on a scale of tens of meters for both species, suggesting animal vectors such as squirrels or blue jays.
Funding Information
  • Savannah River Ecology Lab (DE-AC09-76SR00-819)
  • Department of Energy
  • SREL
  • NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement (BSR-9016351)