Macroalgal domestication and farming can induce significant ecological and biological changes in exploited species. In the red macroalga, Agarophyton chilense, marine farming is based on clonal propagation by cuttings of the largest plants. This type of mass selection by farmers can have a considerable impact on the life history characteristics of cultivated strains. In this study we investigated the potential effect of this type of selection on the reproduction in A. chilense, comparing female gametophytes from the natural and farmed populations. Our results showed strong differences between these two types of populations. As expected, individuals were larger in the farm than in the wild population. On the other hand, the number of cystocarps per centimeters of fronds was ten times lower in the farm than in the natural population. These differences suggest that artificial selection and cultivation environment significantly modify life-history traits in this macroalga. Moreover, the positive relationship between female size and number of cystocarps per centimeters of fronds observed in Dichato point out to the possible existence of cost of reproduction in A. chilense, with bigger females allocating more resources or energy to reproductive structures in natural populations.

大型藻类的驯化和养殖可导致被开发物种的重大生态和生物变化。在红色大型藻类（Agarophyton chilense）中，海洋养殖以最大的插条的无性繁殖为基础。农民进行的这种大规模选择会对耕种菌株的生活史特征产生重大影响。在这项研究中，我们调查了这种选择对A. chilense繁殖的潜在影响。，比较了自然种群和养殖种群的雌配子体。我们的结果表明，这两种类型的人口之间存在很大差异。不出所料，农场中的个体数量要大于野生种群。另一方面，农场中每厘米叶状体的囊果数量比自然种群低十倍。这些差异表明，人工选择和栽培环境极大地改变了该大型藻类的生活史特征。此外，女性大小和cystocarps的数量之间的正比关系中每观察Dichato叶状体的厘米指出在再现的成本可能存在的甲。奇伦斯，更大的雌性会为自然种群的生殖结构分配更多的资源或能量。