z-logo
Premium
A paradoxical mismatch between interspecific pollinator moves and heterospecific pollen receipt in a natural community
Author(s) -
Fang Qiang,
Huang ShuangQuan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.1002/ecy.1433
Subject(s) - interspecific competition , pollinator , pollen , biology , ecology , pollen source , pollination
Pollinators visiting multiple plant species may cause heterospecific pollen transfer ( HPT ). To test a null model that more pollinator interspecific moves result in higher HPT among interacting species, we quantified the comparative magnitudes of the two networks involving 14 co‐flowering species in an alpine meadow in the eastern Himalaya, southwest China. Interspecific moves accounted for 4% of the total visits,whereas heterospecific pollen constituted 22% of the total stigmatic pollen loads. On average, plant species received interspecific moves and HPT from 6.9 and 9.7 other species, respectively. Although the two networks were largely concordant, 21.6% of interspecific move links were not correspondingly linked by HPT , and 44.1% of heterospecific pollen transfer links were not linked by moves. Plant species with more outgoing pollinator moves tended to disperse more of their own pollen to others, as expected. Surprisingly, our data reveal that plant species which received more pollinator moves from other species tended to receive less HP , implying that only species with low acceptance of HP were likely to permit frequent pollinator moves. These new findings unveil a paradoxical relation between pollinator interspecific moves and HP receipt, suggesting an adaptive strategy of co‐flowering species that reduces deleterious effects of HPT .

This content is not available in your region!

Continue researching here.

Having issues? You can contact us here