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Modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery

Understanding how pollinators move across space is key to understanding plant mating patterns. Bees are typically assumed to search for flowers randomly or using simple movement rules, so that the probability of discovering a flower should primarily depend on its distance to the nest. However, exper...

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Autores principales: Morán, Ana, Lihoreau, Mathieu, Pérez-Escudero, Alfonso, Gautrais, Jacques
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10075415/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36961828
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010558
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author Morán, Ana
Lihoreau, Mathieu
Pérez-Escudero, Alfonso
Gautrais, Jacques
author_facet Morán, Ana
Lihoreau, Mathieu
Pérez-Escudero, Alfonso
Gautrais, Jacques
author_sort Morán, Ana
collection PubMed
description Understanding how pollinators move across space is key to understanding plant mating patterns. Bees are typically assumed to search for flowers randomly or using simple movement rules, so that the probability of discovering a flower should primarily depend on its distance to the nest. However, experimental work shows this is not always the case. Here, we explored the influence of flower size and density on their probability of being discovered by bees by developing a movement model of central place foraging bees, based on experimental data collected on bumblebees. Our model produces realistic bee trajectories by taking into account the autocorrelation of the bee’s angular speed, the attraction to the nest (homing), and a gaussian noise. Simulations revealed a « masking effect » that reduces the detection of flowers close to another, with potential far reaching consequences on plant-pollinator interactions. At the plant level, flowers distant to the nest were more often discovered by bees in low density environments. At the bee colony level, foragers found more flowers when they were small and at medium densities. Our results indicate that the processes of search and discovery of resources are potentially more complex than usually assumed, and question the importance of resource distribution and abundance on bee foraging success and plant pollination.
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spelling pubmed-100754152023-04-06 Modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery Morán, Ana Lihoreau, Mathieu Pérez-Escudero, Alfonso Gautrais, Jacques PLoS Comput Biol Research Article Understanding how pollinators move across space is key to understanding plant mating patterns. Bees are typically assumed to search for flowers randomly or using simple movement rules, so that the probability of discovering a flower should primarily depend on its distance to the nest. However, experimental work shows this is not always the case. Here, we explored the influence of flower size and density on their probability of being discovered by bees by developing a movement model of central place foraging bees, based on experimental data collected on bumblebees. Our model produces realistic bee trajectories by taking into account the autocorrelation of the bee’s angular speed, the attraction to the nest (homing), and a gaussian noise. Simulations revealed a « masking effect » that reduces the detection of flowers close to another, with potential far reaching consequences on plant-pollinator interactions. At the plant level, flowers distant to the nest were more often discovered by bees in low density environments. At the bee colony level, foragers found more flowers when they were small and at medium densities. Our results indicate that the processes of search and discovery of resources are potentially more complex than usually assumed, and question the importance of resource distribution and abundance on bee foraging success and plant pollination. Public Library of Science 2023-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC10075415/ /pubmed/36961828 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010558 Text en © 2023 Morán et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Morán, Ana
Lihoreau, Mathieu
Pérez-Escudero, Alfonso
Gautrais, Jacques
Modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery
title Modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery
title_full Modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery
title_fullStr Modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery
title_full_unstemmed Modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery
title_short Modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery
title_sort modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10075415/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36961828
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010558
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