Abstract

To estimate the relative importance of genetic drift, the effective population size (N(e)) can be used. Here we present estimates of the effective population size and related measures in Astrocaryum mexicanum, a tropical palm from Los Tuxtlas rain forest, Veracruz, Mexico. Seed and pollen dispersal were measured. Seeds are primarily dispersed by gravity and secondarily dispersed by small mammals. Mean primary and secondary dispersal distances for seeds were found to be small (0.78 m and 2.35 m, respectively). A. mexicanum is beetle pollinated and pollen movements were measured by different methods: a) using fluorescent dyes, b) as the minimum distance between active female and male inflorescences, and c) using rare allozyme alleles as genetic markers. All three estimates of pollen dispersal were similar, with a mean of approximately 20 m. Using the seed and pollen dispersal data, the genetic neighborhood area (A) was estimated to be 2,551 m2. To obtain the effective population size, three different overlapping generation methods were used to estimate an effective density with demographic data from six permanent plots. The effective density ranged from 0.040 to 0.351 individuals per m2. The product of effective density and neighborhood area yields a direct estimate of the neighborhood effective population size (N(b)). N(b) ranged from 102 to 895 individuals. Indirect estimates of population size and migration rate (Nm) were obtained using F(st) for five different allozymic loci for both adults and seeds. We obtained a range of Nm from 1.2 to 19.7 in adults and a range of Nm from 4.0 to 82.6 for seeds. We discuss possible causes of the smaller indirect estimates of Nm relative to the direct and compare our estimates with values from other plant populations. Gene dispersal distances, neighborhood size. and effective population size in A. mexicanum are relatively high, suggesting that natural selection, rather than genetic drift, may play a dominant role in patterning the genetic variation in this tropical palm.