Floral color and contrast to pollinators in seasonal plant communities: influence of background color and illuminance

• Grant number: 18/11985-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 01, 2018
• End date: January 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Grantee: Amanda Eburneo Martins
• Supervisor: Montserrat Arista Palmero
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad de Sevilla (US), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/15152-1 - Seasonal flowers' colours patterns of and the pollination in a Cerrado savanna, BP.MS

Abstract

Flower color is an important trait mediating plant-pollinator interactions. Since the visual system differs among floral visitors, floral signals of attraction need to be adjusted to pollinators' cognitive system. In addition, some environmental conditions, for example, different vegetation structure, light conditions and seasonal climates, can interfere in the flower contrast against the background with consequences for flower detection by pollinators. In this project we propose to compare flower colors according to the visual system of the pollinators in three seasonal plant communities with different vegetation structure: the woody cerrado savanna, the shrubland vegetation in Mediterranean Basin and the mountain rupestrian grasslands, to answer the following questions: (a) What are the flower color diversity in each vegetation? (b) Do flower contrasts differ among these three seasonal vegetation due to differences in the dominant background coloration and light incidence? To describe flower colors, we will measured flower reflectance data with a spectrometer between 300 and 700nm, which covers all pollinators' visual range. To compare flower colors between the vegetation's we will use color variables calculated from the reflectance spectra, which are brightness, chroma, hue, chromatic and achromatic contrasts, using analyses of variance. We expect to find differences in flower color diversity and contrast among cerrado, rupestrian grassland and Mediterranean shrub communities, related to the relative importance of the pollination syndromes in each vegetation but also as an adaptation to maintain flower conspicuity in different environmental conditions. (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)

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)