Environmental effects on age-dependent mortality: a test with a perennial plant species under natural and protected conditions.

Most experimental studies of senescence have been done with short-lived organisms under controlled laboratory conditions and it is not clear whether the insights gained from these studies can be broadly generalized. This study was designed to detect senescence in a natural population and to compare the patterns of mortality for a single species in natural and protected conditions. It was done with Plantago lanceolata, a perennial plant for which the demography of a large population of individuals in their natural environment is relatively straightforward. An initial cohort of 10,000 individuals was established in the natural field environment. In order to separate the effects of environment- and age-dependent factors on mortality, an additional cohort was planted in the field one year later. To study the demography of mortality under protected conditions, a population of 1000 individuals was established in the greenhouse. The results of the comparative analysis of two different-aged cohorts in the field and of the field and greenhouse populations show that senescence patterns can be very plastic. The results show that senescence in the natural environment is caused by an increased vulnerability of older individuals to environmental stress. Under the protected environmental conditions of the greenhouse senescence was negligible.