Mountain Colonization Triggered Evolutionary Pollinator Shifts Away From Bee-Pollination in Melastomataceae
- Autor(en)
- Constantin Kopper, Jürg Schönenberger, Agnes Dellinger
- Abstrakt
The importance and availability of different pollinator groups changes across elevational gradients, shaping the distribution of pollination systems. In the tropics, we might expect consistent shifts from bee- to vertebrate pollination in lineages that colonized mountains since vertebrates are more abundant and reliable pollinators than bees in cool and wet mountain climates. The few available studies of the environmental context of pollinator shifts indicate that climatic niche shifts precede pollinator shifts. Pollinator shifts therefore seem to be a consequence of the reduced pollination efficiency of the ancestral pollinator in the newly colonized environment. Ancestral pollinators may be retained, if species adapt to their reduced availability, (i.e., evolution of traits maximizing pollen transfer). Such traits include investment in overall floral display, which is positively correlated with pollination rates and traits regulating pollen dispensing (i.e., anther dehiscence).
Comparing the elevational distribution and pollination system (bee-pollinated versus shifted) of 333 Melastomataceae species, we show that pollinator shifts indeed associate with occurrence in cool and wet mountain environments across the family. By reconstructing the evolutionary history of pollinator shifts and elevation we show that colonization of mountains repeatedly triggered, and hence preceded shifts away from bee pollination. Also, we show that bee-pollinated species at higher elevation are confined to warmer areas compared to species which shifted pollinators. Finally, we show that floral traits potentially facilitating pollen transfer (petal- and pore-size) associate with montane environments and hence might have enabled bee-pollinated species the initial mountain colonization, and to retain bee pollination in warmer montane areas.- Organisation(en)
- Department für Botanik und Biodiversitätsforschung
- Seiten
- 30
- Publikationsdatum
- 2024
- ÖFOS 2012
- 106008 Botanik, 106042 Systematische Botanik, 106012 Evolutionsforschung
- Schlagwörter
- Link zum Portal
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/380c83d1-bf39-47e1-9db3-ee14ffe68148