Menges and Christine Hawkes reviewed the interactive role of fire and microhabitat on Florida scrub plants in an article published in Ecological Applications . They emphasized changes that occur at landscape scales, local patches, and microsites. A more general review of scrub biology by Menges includes summaries of demographic and metapopulation research on a variety of Florida scrub organisms. Another type of integrative science occurs when different studies on the same organism combine to provide additional insights. This is illustrated by various projects on the endangered scrub mint, Dicerandra frutescens.
Genetic analyses reveal extremely narrow variation, perhaps due to periodic population crashes.
However, little genetic difference exists among various populations, suggesting that gene flow has connected these patches in the past. Pollination studies recently published by Menges and Mark Deyrup suggest that pollination doesn't limit fruit production, but it may affect the fitness of subsequent seedlings. Outbreeding depression, studied by intern Abigail McCarthy, has the potential to reduce the fitness of seedlings resulting from long-distance crosses. While gene flow by pollen may be substantial, intern Matthew Finer showed that seed dispersal is rare much beyond the parental canopy. Consequently, loss of dormant seed banks due to fire suppression could be very important to population persistence.