Wild blueberry is a native plant managed as a crop in northeastern North America. Fruit drop in wild blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton, was studied over 6 years (1996–1999, 2008 and 2011). Three hypotheses were tested regarding fruit drop mechanisms from plants (clones) sampled in the field: 1) proportional fruit drop; 2) constant or uniform fruit drop; and 3) pollen or resource limitation. In addition, the temporal rate of fruit drop was measured between the end of pollination (petal fall) and fruit maturity just prior to harvest (2008 and 2011). The dynamics of fruit drop were different in the two years. The role of pollination intensity in fruit drop was also assessed. Evidence for both proportional fruit drop and resource limitation at the clone level was found but only proportional drop at the field level. Low levels of seed set are associated with fruit drop. In a four-year study (1996–1999), fruit drop ranged from 23.3 to 49.4% of the total set fruit. Partitioning the variance in fruit drop between years, fields and clones (plant genotypes) showed that the highest variation is between stems within clones (37.4%) and clones (plant genotype) within fields (35.4%), followed by between fields (19.8%) and between years (7.4%).

中文翻译：

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野生蓝莓水果滴：种子集的后果？

野生蓝莓是在北美东北部作为农作物进行管理的本土植物。在过去的6年中（1996–1999、2008和2011），研究了野生蓝莓Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton的落果量。关于在田间采样的植物（克隆）的落果机理，测试了三个假设：1）成比例的落果；2）恒定或均匀的水果滴；3）花粉或资源限制。此外，还测量了授粉结束（花瓣下降）与刚收获前（2008年和2011年）果实成熟之间的果实落下率。两年中水果掉落的动力学是不同的。还评估了授粉强度在落果中的作用。在克隆水平上均发现了比例下降和资源有限的证据，但在田间水平上却只有比例下降。结实水平低与落果有关。在一项为期四年的研究（1996-1999）中，落果量占总落果量的23.3％至49.4％。按年份，田间和无性系（植物基因型）之间的果实滴度变化进行划分，结果表明，变异最大的是克隆内的茎（37.4％）和田间的无性系（植物基因型）之间（35.4％），其次是田间（19.8％） ）和年份之间（7.4％）。