Seasonal flowers' colours patterns of and the pollination in a Cerrado savanna

• Grant number: 17/15152-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany
• Principal Investigator: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Grantee: Amanda Eburneo Martins
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/11985-1 - Floral color and contrast to pollinators in seasonal plant communities: influence of background color and illuminance, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

Angiosperms has high diversity and richness of plant species, being the pollination by biotic vectors the main process for the sexual reproduction. To attract floral visitors, plant species need to adapt their morphological traits to the cognitive system of pollinators. Most of flower visitors uses vision to forage and the flower colour is an important signal to attract pollen vectors that are visually oriented. The climatic seasonality can change the diversity of flowers' colours over the year and the perception of flower colours by pollinators, due to the changes in the leaves background coloration within different seasons. This study will be conduct in cerrado sensu stricto vegetation, in which predominates shrubs and trees species and which is subjected to climatic seasonality, with wet summers and dry winters. We intend to analyse the diversity of flower colours and their contrast against their leaves background, considering the pollinators' visual systems, in order to answer the following questions: (i) does seasonality influences the diversity of flower colours over time in the cerrado sensu stricto? (ii) are colours related to pollination syndromes? (iii) changes in the background coloration within seasons can affect the conspicuousness of flowers for the pollinators? (iv) does the seasonal pattern and the diversity of flower colours differ from a shrub-tree vegetation of cerrado sensu stricto to a rupestrian grassland vegetation? To survey the plant species' phenological patterns, we marked all individuals > 3 cm of circumference at ground level in 36 transects of 25 x 2 m and performed monthly observations of the vegetative and reproductive phenophases. We will measure reflectance data of flowers' colours with a spectrometer between 300 and 700nm, which covers all pollinators' visual sensitivity. We expect to found variations in flower colour diversity between the wet and the dry seasons, as well as differences in the conspicuousness of flowers to pollinators, due to the seasonal variation in the leaf background coloration. We also expect to find different colour patterns in the cerrado sensu stricto and rupestrian grassland due differences in the vegetation structure and light incidence in these cerrado physiognomies. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

RENAN BORGIANI; MARIA TEREZA GROMBONE-GUARATINI; BETÂNIA DA CUNHA VARGAS; AMANDA EBURNEO MARTINS; MARIA GABRIELA GUTIERREZ CAMARGO; LEONOR PATRÍCIA CERDEIRA MORELLATO. Composição florística, modos de polinização e dispersão de sementes de uma área de cerrado relevante para conservação. Biota Neotropica, v. 22, n. 2, 2022-09-16. (10/51307-0, 13/50155-0, 17/15152-1, 15/10754-8, 09/54208-6)

MARTINS, AMANDA EBURNEO; CAMARGO, MARIA GABRIELA GUTIERREZ; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA CERDEIRA. Flowering Phenology and the Influence of Seasonality in Flower Conspicuousness for Bees. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE, v. 11, FEB 16 2021. (10/51307-0, 15/10754-8, 17/15152-1, 18/11985-1, 09/54208-6)

MARTINS, AMANDA E.; ARISTA, MONTSERRAT; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA CERDEIRA; CAMARGO, MARIA GABRIELA G.. Color signals of bee-pollinated flowers: the significance of natural leaf background. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY, v. 108, n. 5, p. 788-797, MAY 2021. (18/11985-1, 17/15152-1, 15/10754-8, 09/54208-6, 10/51307-0, 18/21646-0)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

MARTINS, Amanda Eburneo. Flower color patterns and pollination in seasonal vegetations. 2019. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências. Rio Claro Rio Claro.