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Factors affecting pollinator movement and plant fitness in a specialized pollination system

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Abstract

The rate of pollen exchange within and among flowers may depend on pollinator attraction traits such as floral display size and flowering plant density. Variations in these traits may influence pollinator movements, pollen receipt, and seed number. To assess how floral display size and flowering plant density affect parameters of pollinator visitation rate, pollen receipt per flower, seed number per fruit and the between-plant pollinator movements, we studied the self-incompatible plant, Nierembergia linariifolia. Per-flower pollinator visitation rate and bout length increased linearly with increasing floral display size. Pollen receipt per flower increased linearly with increasing flowering plant density. For seed number per fruit, a polynomial model describing an increased seed number per fruit at low density and a decreased seed number per fruit at high density provided a significant fit. Per-flower pollinator visitation rate was not associated with pollen receipt per flower and seed number per fruit. Bees visited plants located near to the center of the population more frequently than plants located at the periphery. Increases in both floral display size and flowering plant density led to an increased chance of a plant being chosen as the center of the pollinator foraging area. These results suggest that even though large floral displays and high flowering plant density are traits that attract more pollinators, they may also reduce potential mate diversity by restricting pollen movement to conspecific mates that are closely located.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to M. Calumi and C. Lazarte who assisted us during the field work. J.N. and A.A.C. are fellow researchers from CONICET. We would also thank two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. This study was funded by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (PIP 5174) and Secretaría de Ciencia y Técnica Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (197/05).

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  1. Julieta Nattero

    Present address: Cátedra de Introducción a la Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Avda. Vélez Sarsfield 299, piso 5, X5000JJC, Córdoba, Argentina

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal, CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Casilla 495, X5000JJC, Córdoba, Argentina

    Julieta Nattero, Romina Malerba & Andrea Cocucci

  2. Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile

    Rodrigo Medel

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  1. Julieta Nattero
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  4. Andrea Cocucci
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Correspondence to Julieta Nattero.

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Nattero, J., Malerba, R., Medel, R. et al. Factors affecting pollinator movement and plant fitness in a specialized pollination system. Plant Syst Evol 296, 77–85 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-011-0477-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-011-0477-4

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