Covariation among reproductive traits in flowering plants shapes their interactions with pollinators

Title
Covariation among reproductive traits in flowering plants shapes their interactions with pollinators
Publication Date
2023-07
Author(s)
Lanuza, Jose B
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0287-409X
Email: jbarraga@myune.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:jbarraga
Rader, Romina
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9056-9118
Email: rrader@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:rrader
Stavert, Jamie
Kendall, Liam K
Saunders, Manu E
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0645-8277
Email: msaund28@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:msaund28
Bartomeus, Ignasi
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1111/1365-2435.14340
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/55088
Abstract
  1. Globally, plants display enormous variation in life-history strategies and trait combinations. However, evidence suggests that evolutionary and physiological constraints limit the number of plant ecological strategies. Although there have been recent advances in understanding correlations among plant traits, reproductive traits are rarely considered, despite their key role in shaping plant life-history strategies and interactions with pollinators.
  2. Here, using a global dataset of 18 reproductive traits for 1506 species, we investigate the reproductive spectrum of flowering plants to identify how it shapes interactions with pollinators.
  3. We show that over 50% of all trait variation is explained by the first two reproductive axes, which represent the negative correlation between flower number and flower size, and the negative correlation between autonomous selfing and floral display size. In addition, these reproductive axes were associated with the identity and number of visits of the distinct pollinator guilds. However, reproductive axes explain a relatively small amount of variance in pollinator interactions highlighting the need to incorporate other factors along with reproductive traits to fully explain large-scale patterns of plant-pollinator interactions.
  4. Our study identifies the major reproductive trait correlations in flowering plants and their role in shaping plant-pollinator interactions at a macro-ecological scale. These findings emphasise the importance of considering reproductive traits in the global spectrum of plant form and function, and the need to explore beyond floral morphological traits to broaden our understanding of plant-pollinator interactions.
Link
Citation
Functional Ecology, 37(7), p. 2072-2084
ISSN
1365-2435
0269-8463
Start page
2072
End page
2084

Files:

NameSizeformatDescriptionLink