Ecological relationships in time and space: flower signal standardization in congeneric species

• Grant number: 18/21646-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: April 01, 2019
• End date: December 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Grantee: Maria Gabriela Gutierrez de Camargo
• 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: 15/10754-8 - Spatio-temporal variations in the flower-color spectra according to the pollinators' visual systems, BP.PD

Abstract

Within a community, plant species vary in their patterns of flower production and distribution in time and space. While the flowering time and spatial distribution tend to favor pollination success and avoid interspecific competition, pollinators look forward optimizing their food search. Floral constancy, a forage strategy performed by bees, is advantageous for both: improves the chances to find resource for bees and promotes the visitation of conspecific flowers and, consequently, the cross pollination for plants. Since floral constancy depends on the bees' ability to discriminate floral signals, it is expected that co-occurrent plant species will diverge in their floral displays. However, in the campo rupestrian vegetation some plant taxa, including the most diverse ones, present similar floral display among species. In this proposal I will investigate, in the context of Batesian and Müllerian mimicry, possible ecological relationships which allows the co-occurrence of congeneric species, pollinated mainly by bees and with similar floral display, in a campo ruspestrian area. For that I will analyze (i) species overlap in space - the occurrence and frequency of these species in the study site; (ii) species overlap in time - phenological patterns of flowering; and (iii) whether their floral color signals can be discriminated by bees, based on reflectance data and color variables calculated according to the bee visual system. During the internship I will (i) analyze data of species frequency in 180 plots (1 m2) established in the study site; (ii) survey and analyze phenological data from previous studies or herbaria databases; (iii) calculate and analyze color variables related to bee color discrimination (achromatic and chromatic contrasts, color patterns, marker points, color loci distances in the bee color space). With this proposal we intend to give the first step to understand the high frequency of congeneric species presenting similar floral display in the campo rupestrian, considering if bees can discriminate these similar displays and how this possible signal standardization could favor floral constancy and cross pollination. Finally, we will look for the possibility to extend this analysis to the Mediterranean vegetation. (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)

MONTEIRO, BEATRIZ LOPES; GUTIERREZ CAMARGO, MARIA GABRIELA; LOIOLA, PRISCILLA DE PAULA; CARSTENSEN, DANIEL WISBECH; GUSTAFSSON, SIMONE; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA. Pollination in the campo rupestre: a test of hypothesis for an ancient tropical mountain vegetation. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, v. 133, n. 2, p. 512-530, JUN 2021. (10/51307-0, 15/10754-8, 18/21646-0, 13/50155-0, 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)

DE MATTOS, JACQUELINE SALVI; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA; GUTIERREZ CAMARGO, MARIA GABRIELA; BATALHA, MARCO ANTONIO. Plant phylogenetic diversity of tropical mountaintop rocky grasslands: local and regional constraints. PLANT ECOLOGY, v. 220, n. 12, p. 1119-1129, DEC 2019. (13/50155-0, 09/54208-6, 18/21646-0, 15/10754-8)