Introduction
Clonality occurs across the entire tree of life, including all kingdoms
of Eukaryota (Avise & Nicholson, 2008; Schön, Van Dijk, & Martens,
2009; Tibayrenc, Avise, & Ayala, 2015). Most, if not all, clonal
eukaryotic species alternate between clonal and sexual reproduction at
the population scale over a few generations (see Box 1 for the
definitions used in this work). This mode of reproduction, called
partial clonality (PC), has been reported in a broad range of species,
especially primary producers, ecosystem engineers, pathogens and
invasive species. Their evolutionary trajectories may thus have major
consequences for ecosystem functioning and for human health and
development (Schön et al., 2009; Yu, Roiloa, & Alpert, 2016).
Challenging environments and the edges of species ranges may also favour
populations able to reproduce using PC and putatively populations with
higher rates of clonality, emphasising the importance of understanding
evolutionary trajectories of PC species when dealing with global changes
(Barrett, 2015, 2016; Tibayrenc & Ayala, 2012; Yu et al., 2016).