Aging in plants – what do we really know?
10:15–11:00
University of Southern Denmark
Abstract
That plant individuals must experience “demographic senescence” (increasing mortality and decreasing fertility with age) has been questioned in recent theoretical studies and is not supported by classical empirical data. However, good data is lacking. I present and summarize more recent results on age effects on plant mortality and fertility, and discuss consequences for evolutionary theories of aging and for predictions of population dynamics.
Biography
I’m a plant population ecologist primarily interested in environmental drivers of population dynamics and in effects of age on demographic processes. I did my PhD at Stockholm University 2004-2008 and stayed several years as a post doc. In Stockholm, my main focus was on including environmental drivers in integral projection models of population dynamics. In 2013 I moved to the University of Southern Denmark, to join a center focused on demographic aging, and am now an associate professor in plant demography there.
