Description
Floral trait evolution mediated by pollinators is a main driver of the diversification of flowering plants. A robust literature has focused on the role of pollinators as agents of floral trait evolution, with hundreds of studies distributed across a myriad of ecosystems. However, we currently lack comprehensive knowledge on how particular pollinator taxa contribute to the overall patterns of floral trait evolution. This is especially relevant for pollination-generalized plants, which interact with a broad range of pollinator taxa. Here, we performed flight cage experiments with functionally distinct pollinator taxa to estimate pollinator-specific patterns of phenotypic selection on floral traits in Viscaria vulgaris, a perennial herb of dry meadows. We found that legitimate and illegitimate flower visitors (Bombus), as well as a butterfly (Pieris), differed in their contribution to plant reproductive success. The variance in plant reproductive success was greatest for plant individuals that interacted with Pieris. We also found that the patterns of phenotypic selection on floral traits varied across the functionally distinct pollinator taxa, in particular for floral traits that determine flower-pollinator fit. However, these disparities were largely driven by variation in the strength of phenotypic selection on floral traits and do not necessarily impose strong pollinator-mediated trade-offs that produce valleys in the fitness function of Viscaria vulgaris. Our study is one of the few that have dissected pollinator-specific patterns of phenotypic selection on floral traits in a pollination-generalized plant and represents a first step to understand the relative importance of particular pollinator taxa as agents of floral trait evolution.| Period | 2024 Oct 12 |
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| Event title | Scandinavian Association for Pollination Ecology 2024 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | NorwayShow on map |