What patterns of aging emerge from a long-term, longitudinal, study of a plant population in the wild?

Background/Question/Methods

In natural populations, quantifying aging is often confounded because changes in mortality and reproduction may be influenced by both short-and long-term environmental fluctuations as well as age-dependent changes in performance.  We will report on the results from a large, multiple cohort study, which has followed approximately 30,000 individuals of Plantago lanceolata over 12 years. To compare both demographic and physiological aging in this species we have measured mortality, size, reproduction patterns and physiological traits over time and age.

Results/Conclusions

Short-term environmental fluctuations have a major influence on both demographic and physiological traits.  In addition, longitudinal analysis shows age-by-environment interactions for mortality and age-dependent patterns for reproduction.