Stable habitats favor clonal asexual reproduction over sexual spore production

Evidence

Reproductive strategies that limit variation and preserve the parents’ favorable gene combinations are commonplace among the mosses. The rock wall behind the barn has been undisturbed since the first farm owners built it 179 years ago. In such a steady, predictable habitat a steady, predictable way of life is most successful. The Anomodon mat that lives there has had nearly two centuries to prove that it bears a genetic makeup well suited to that particular spot. Energy devoted to frequent sexual reproduction would essentially be wasted here, by producing wind-blown spores of potentially unfit genotypes, which would simply be lost on the wind. In a stable, favorable environment, it is better to invest that energy in growth and clonal expansion of the existing longlived moss, preserving the tried and true genotype, like pedigreed cows. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 317

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mosses evolved two reproductive strategies trading dispersal distance against genetic novelty — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 323; Tetraphis switches between clonal and sexual reproduction based on colony density — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 340; Restricted dispersal alone can generate persistent patchy genetic variation even in large populations — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1822 (+1 more)