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| Author(s): |
Amanda Eburneo Martins
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Rio Claro. 2020-01-23. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências. Rio Claro |
| Defense date: | 2019-10-14 |
| Advisor: | Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato; Maria Gabriela Gutierrez de Camargo |
| Abstract | |
Vision is the main sense used to forage by pollinators being the flower colour the primary feature of attraction. Colour signals perception depend on the flower background colouration, mainly composed by leaves. Differences in species composition and vegetation structure, and also the seasonality, may change the leaf-background colouration of different vegetations and seasons, interfering how the pollinators perceive a flower. Therefore, flower colour diversity and flowering patterns of a community may be related to the pollinators’ composition and environmental conditions. Using a community level-approach and according to bee visual system, we described and compared the flower colour diversity and the signals of a temperate and two tropical seasonal vegetations, considering their leaf background colouration. Then, to link flower signals to seasonality and using the cerrado sensu stricto as a model of seasonal vegetation, we analysed the importance of the surveyed pollination syndromes, the community flowering pattern, flowering patterns according to the colour of flowers and the influence of seasonal changes in the background colouration in the flower colour signals between seasons. We found differences in flower colour diversity and confirmed the influence of the leaf- background colouration, along with the vegetation structure and seasonality intensity, in flower colour signals displayed in different seasonal vegetations according to the colour vision of bees. Higher values of chromatic signals were found in the temperate vegetation and higher values of achromatic signals in tropical vegetations. We confirmed the bees as the dominant pollinator in the cerrado sensu stricto but with a high diversity of animals as pollinators, featuring a generalist pattern of pollination. Yellow and bluegreen were the predominant flower colours, according to the colour vision of humans and bees, respectively. Although these colours are generally related to melittophily, we did not find a clear relationship between colours and syndromes. Finally, we confirmed that seasonality shaped the community flowering patterns and flower colour diversity over time, promoting distinct flower signals and maximizing flower detection by pollinators over seasons. Higher values of chromatic signals were promoted by the background of the dry season and higher values of achromatic signals by the background of the wet season. We offered news perspectives in sensorial ecology, reinforcing the importance of consider the background colour and the pollinators’ visual system when analysing flower colours at community-level. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 17/15152-1 - Seasonal flowers' colours patterns of and the pollination in a Cerrado savanna |
| Grantee: | Amanda Eburneo Martins |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |