Pollinator Return on Investment in Joshua Tree - Yucca Moth Obligate Mutualism PDF Download

Author: Albert Dang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 34

Get Book Here

Book Description
Organisms do not exist in complete isolation, they all interact with one another. These interactions can come from predators, parasites, competitors, and even mutualists. Here I test the hypothesis that pollination behaviors thought to expend more energy, may in fact be beneficial to the pollinator in terms of provisioning more resources for their progeny, as well as host plant. My study system is the obligate mutualism between two species of Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia and Yucca jaegeriana) and their associated moth pollinators (Tegeticula synthetica and Tegeticula antithetica). I reconstructed sibships among pollinator larvae using DNA barcoding and microsatellite genotyping to infer instances in which female yucca moths had likely cross pollinated. I show that fruit seed and larvae totals were not significantly different between fruits that were a result of cross pollination and those that were not. I used regression modeling to see if the number of pollinator larvae influenced the number of seeds after accounting for climate variables. Here I saw a significant negative impact on seed totals, but also a strong effect from co-occurring seed predators. Other factors are likely to play a role in pollinators' return on investments which were unable to be incorporated for this study. These results are consistent with other studies demonstrating that moth interests are not in alignment with their host plant.