Patterns of floral nectar standing crops allow plants to manipulate their pollinators

Autor(es)

Pyke, Graham H. ^{[1, 2]} ; Kalman, John R. M. ^[3] ; Bordin, Dayanne M. ^[3] ; Blanes, Lucas ^{[3, 4]} ; Doble, Philip A. ^[3]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Chinese Acad Sci, Kunming Inst Bot, Key Lab Plant Divers & Biogeog East Asia, Kunming 650201, Yunnan - Peoples R China

^[2] Macquarie Univ, Dept Biol Sci, Ryde, NSW 2109 - Australia

^[3] Univ Technol Sydney, Sch Math & Phys Sci, Ultimo, NSW 2007 - Australia

^[4] Oswaldo Cruz Fdn Fiocruz, Carlos Chagas Inst, Lab Appl Sci & Technol Hlth, Curitiba, Parana - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS; v. 10, n. 1 FEB 3 2020.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

`Pollination syndromes' involving floral nectar have eluded satisfactory evolutionary explanation. For example, floral nectars for vertebrate-pollinated plants average low sugar concentrations, while such animals prefer high concentrations, perplexing pollination biologists and arousing recent controversy. Such relationships should result from evolutionary games, with plants and pollinators adopting Evolutionarily Stable Strategies, and nectar manipulating rather than attracting pollinators. Plant potential to manipulate pollinators depends on relationships between neighbouring flowers within plants, for all nectar attributes, but this has not been investigated. We measured nectar volume, concentration and sugar composition for open flowers on naturally-growing Blandfordia grandiflora plants, presenting classic bird-pollinated plant syndrome. To evaluate potential pollinator manipulation through nectar, we analysed relationships between neighbouring flowers for nectar volume, concentration, proportion sucrose, log(fructose/glucose), and sugar weight. To evaluate potential attraction of repeat-visits to flowers or plants through nectar, we compared attributes between successive days. Nearby flowers were positively correlated for all attributes, except log(fructose/glucose) as fructose approximate to glucose. Most relationships between nectar attributes for flowers and plants on successive days were non-significant. Nectar-feeding pollinators should therefore decide whether to visit another flower on a plant, based on all attributes of nectar just-obtained, enabling plants to manipulate pollinators through adjusting nectar. Plants are unlikely to attract repeat pollinator-visits through nectar production. Floral nectar evolution is conceptually straightforward but empirically challenging. A mutant plant deviating from the population in attributes of nectar-production per flower would manipulate, rather than attract, nectar-feeding pollinators, altering pollen transfer, hence reproduction. However, links between floral nectar and plant fitness present empirical difficulties. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 13/25601-7 - Avaliação do suor como amostra alternativa no controle do doping no esporte
• Beneficiário: Dayanne Cristiane Mozaner Bordin
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado