Author: Gerard Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The myriad ways species interact with each other have always captivated biologists. These interactions-predation, competition, parasitism, and mutualism-are fundamental to the stability of ecological communities and drive the evolution of species they contain. Some mutualistic systems consist of mutually dependent partners that strongly influence each other's survival, while other mutualistic systems consist of many, diffuse relationships between large assemblages of partners. Critical ecological processes like pollination and seed dispersal are prime examples of such complex systems. Plant-pollinator communities are characterized by extensive pollinator sharing among plant species. My dissertation explores some of the consequences of this reliance on shared pollinators on the structure of plant-pollinator interaction networks, the foraging decisions of pollinators, and the fitness outcomes of plant species. Through several comprehensive field studies, I contribute to our understanding of mutualist interaction patterns at multiple levels of biological hierarchy: the community, species, and individuals. My first chapter examines the forces driving the change in interaction patterns of an entire plant-pollinator community and individual species throughout the flowering season. Nearly all studies of plant-pollinator interaction networks ignore potential intra-annual variation, and in doing so may be missing critical mechanisms contributing to overall community stability. I find that the overall turnover of interactions is high and driven by a process of interaction rewiring in which species frequently shuffle between available partners. Furthermore, I distinguish pollinator species whose interactions are driven by an abundance-based neutral process versus those that change their interactions beyond what is predicted by a neutral, abundance-driven null model. My second chapter uses a network-based framework to consider the fitness consequences for plants participating in a diffuse plant-pollinator network. I analyze the relationship between plant species' network metrics and pollen deposition. Empirical examples that link patterns of interactions and functional outcomes (e.g., pollination) are scarce, but necessary to establish the utility of characterizing species interaction patterns. My final chapter explores how pollinator composition, local floral neighborhoods, and timing of flowering influence the pollination outcomes of individual Oenothera fruticosa flowers. I demonstrate extensive intraspecific variation in receipt of pollen from other species ('heterospecific pollen receipt') and find that this heterospecific pollen has a negative fitness effect if present in sufficiently high amounts. Together, the chapters of my thesis provide novel insights into the consequences of pollinator sharing among co-flowering plant species.
Author: David Alan Moeller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 454
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Book Description
Author: Carol Ann Kearns
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 616
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Book Description
Presents a full range of techniques--the newest and most sophisticated as well as the simple, inexpensive, and traditional ones--compiled from the published literature and from the unpublished notebooks and files of pollination biologists. Examines pitfalls and offers cautionary advice about design and implementation of various types of pollination experiments. An important compilation in a discipline fed by a variety of fields and heretofore lacking a single source "how-to" reference. Paper edition (unseen), $17.50. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309102898
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 327
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Book Description
Pollinators-insects, birds, bats, and other animals that carry pollen from the male to the female parts of flowers for plant reproduction-are an essential part of natural and agricultural ecosystems throughout North America. For example, most fruit, vegetable, and seed crops and some crops that provide fiber, drugs, and fuel depend on animals for pollination. This report provides evidence for the decline of some pollinator species in North America, including America's most important managed pollinator, the honey bee, as well as some butterflies, bats, and hummingbirds. For most managed and wild pollinator species, however, population trends have not been assessed because populations have not been monitored over time. In addition, for wild species with demonstrated declines, it is often difficult to determine the causes or consequences of their decline. This report outlines priorities for research and monitoring that are needed to improve information on the status of pollinators and establishes a framework for conservation and restoration of pollinator species and communities.
Author: Steven D. Johnson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198732694
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 197
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Book Description
Thie is the first definitive book on floral mimicry, providing a wider treatise on floral adaptation and plant evolution.
Author: Adrian L. Carper
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 330
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Book Description
Urban and suburban development is a dominant factor driving ecological processes at local and regional scales and its impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services are alarming. Pollinators, especially bees, and the ecosystem services they provide are of particular concern, given their importance for both the conservation of native plants and their value to global food production. However, bees might benefit from moderate levels of development, depending on how they alter the availability of foraging and nesting resources. How such changes in bee communities and other floral interactors affect native plants persisting in urban and suburban areas is less studied. To determine how one type of low-intensity human development, suburbanization, affects bee communities, pollination, and the mechanisms involved, I characterized the bee communities of suburban and natural forests in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, and used a series of experiments and observations to explore factors driving bee communities and their pollination services to native plants. Overall, suburban forests more bees than natural forests. Moreover, suburban bee richness and composition was similar to those in natural forests. Bee abundance and richness were both positively associated with local floral diversity and the amount of open habitats in the surrounding landscape. Hand-pollination experiments using three native flowering plants suggested that increased bee abundance associated with suburban developments did not translate into increased pollination services. Finally, a manipulative field experiment demonstrated that floral herbivory, which is generally more prevalent in suburban areas, can indirectly effect plant reproduction through altered pollinator behavior and subsequently pollen export. Taken together, these results suggest that while suburban areas can hold conservation value for bees, increased bee abundance in suburban areas does not translate into increased pollination services to native plants. Furthermore, plant interactions with other floral consumers can modify consumers can modify the outcome of plant-pollinator interactions, and have sex-specific effects on plant reproduction.
Author: Jeff Ollerton
Publisher: Pelagic Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784272299
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 425
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Book Description
A unique and personal insight into the ecology and evolution of pollinators, their relationships with flowers, and their conservation in a rapidly changing world. The pollination of flowers by insects, birds and other animals is a fundamentally important ecological function that supports both the natural world and human society. Without pollinators to facilitate the sexual reproduction of plants, the world would be a biologically poorer place in which to live, there would be an impact on food security, and human health would suffer. Written by one of the world’s leading pollination ecologists, this book provides an introduction to what pollinators are, how their interactions with flowers have evolved, and the fundamental ecology of these relationships. It explores the pollination of wild and agricultural plants in a variety of habitats and contexts, including urban, rural and agricultural environments. The author also provides practical advice on how individuals and organisations can study, and support, pollinators. As well as covering the natural history of pollinators and flowers, the author discusses their cultural importance, and the ways in which pollinator conservation has been portrayed from a political perspective. The book draws on field work experiences in South America, Africa, Australia, the Canary Islands and the UK. For over 30 years the author has spent his career researching how plants and pollinators evolve relationships, how these interactions function ecologically, their importance for society, and how we can conserve them in a rapidly changing world. This book offers a unique and personal insight into the science of pollinators and pollination, aimed at anyone who is interested in understanding these fascinating and crucial ecological interactions.
Author: Jennifer Irene Van Wyk
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780438930360
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Understanding ecological interactions in a changing world is a complex task. I investigated plant-pollinator interactions in response to two large scale drivers: restoration and grazing. The goal of the first two chapters of my dissertation was to measure multitrophic responses to restoration over time by using a space for time proxy constructed through a series of restored meadow complexes in the Sierra. In chapter 1 I looked at the plant and pollinator community responses to pond and plug restoration by comparing diversity metrics and species composition in restored meadows to degraded and remnant meadows. Restored meadows have similar diversity to remnant meadows and have more rich and abundant pollinator communities than degraded meadows. The identity of the insect species in restored meadows is not significantly different from remnant or degraded meadows. I found that abundance and richness of pollinators responds positively to time since restoration. Across all meadow types there is strong year to year variation in community composition. In chapter 2 I measured pollination function following restoration and managed grazing on two sentinel plant species: Camassia quamash and Penstemon rydbergii, using five measures: pollinator visitation, pollen deposition, pollen tube growth, seed set, and pollen limitation. I found hydrologic restoration and managed grazing both have independent positive influences on plant and pollinator community diversity, and pollination success of the two sentinel plants. To address these questions about the broader ecological impacts of restoration more studies on species interactions, community structure, and nontarget responses are needed. In chapter 3 I examined tritrophic interactions and indirect defense. To do so I supplemented pollen to the wooly leaves of turkey mullein, Croton setiger, to determine if pollen entrapped on leaves supplements predatory arthropods and reduces herbivore populations and damage to the plant. Pollen supplementation decreased the amount of leaf damage experienced by plants over the season, suggesting that pollen entrapment can act as an indirect defense.
Author: Teja Tscharntke
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521791106
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234
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Book Description
This book explores the complex interactions between plants, their herbivores and natural enemies.
Author: David G. Lloyd
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461311659
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420
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Book Description
Studies in floral biology are largely concerned with how flowers function to promote pollination and mating. The role of pollination in governing mating patterns in plant populations inextricably links the evolution of pollination and mating systems. Despite the close functional link between pollination and mating, research conducted for most of this century on these two fundamental aspects of plant reproduction has taken quite separate courses. This has resulted in suprisingly little cross-fertilization between the fields of pollination biology on the one hand and plant mating-system studies on the other. The separation of the two areas has largely resulted from the different backgrounds and approaches adopted by workers in these fields. Most pollination studies have been ecological in nature with a strong emphasis on field research and until recently few workers considered how the mechanics of pollen dispersal might influence mating patterns and individual plant fitness. In contrast, work on plant mating patterns has often been conducted in an ecological vacuum largely devoid of information on the environmental and demographic context in which mating occurs. Mating-system research has been dominated by population genetic and theoretical perspectives with surprisingly little consideration given to the proximate ecological factors responsible for causing a particular pattern of mating to occur.
