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Functional role of long-lived flowers in preventing pollen limitation in a high elevation outcrossing species

Low pollinator visitation in harsh environments may lead to pollen limitation which can threaten population persistence. Consequently, avoidance of pollen limitation is expected in outcrossing species subjected to habitually low pollinator service. The elevational decline in visitation rates on many...

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Autores principales: Arroyo, Mary T K, Pacheco, Diego Andrés, Dudley, Leah S
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5716155/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29225762
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plx050
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author Arroyo, Mary T K
Pacheco, Diego Andrés
Dudley, Leah S
author_facet Arroyo, Mary T K
Pacheco, Diego Andrés
Dudley, Leah S
author_sort Arroyo, Mary T K
collection PubMed
description Low pollinator visitation in harsh environments may lead to pollen limitation which can threaten population persistence. Consequently, avoidance of pollen limitation is expected in outcrossing species subjected to habitually low pollinator service. The elevational decline in visitation rates on many high mountains provides an outstanding opportunity for addressing this question. According to a recent meta-analysis, levels of pollen limitation in alpine and lowland species do not differ. If parallel trends are manifested among populations of alpine species with wide elevational ranges, how do their uppermost populations contend with lower visitation? We investigated visitation rates and pollen limitation in high Andean Rhodolirium montanum. We test the hypothesis that lower visitation rates at high elevations are compensated for by the possession of long-lived flowers. Visitation rates decreased markedly over elevation as temperature decreased. Pollen limitation was absent at the low elevation site but did occur at the high elevation site. While initiation of stigmatic pollen deposition at high elevations was not delayed, rates of pollen arrival were lower, and cessation of pollination, as reflected by realized flower longevity, occurred later in the flower lifespan. Comparison of the elevational visitation decline and levels of pollen limitation indicates that flower longevity partially compensates for the lower visitation rates at high elevation. The functional role of flower longevity, however, was strongly masked by qualitative pollen limitation arising from higher abortion levels attributable to transference of genetically low-quality pollen in large clones. Stronger clonal growth at high elevations could counterbalance the negative fitness consequences of residual pollen limitation due to low visitation rates and/or difficult establishment under colder conditions. Visitation rates on the lower part of the elevational range greatly exceeded community rates recorded several decades ago when the planet was cooler. Current pollen limitation for some species in some habitats might underestimate historical levels.
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spelling pubmed-57161552017-12-08 Functional role of long-lived flowers in preventing pollen limitation in a high elevation outcrossing species Arroyo, Mary T K Pacheco, Diego Andrés Dudley, Leah S AoB Plants Research Article Low pollinator visitation in harsh environments may lead to pollen limitation which can threaten population persistence. Consequently, avoidance of pollen limitation is expected in outcrossing species subjected to habitually low pollinator service. The elevational decline in visitation rates on many high mountains provides an outstanding opportunity for addressing this question. According to a recent meta-analysis, levels of pollen limitation in alpine and lowland species do not differ. If parallel trends are manifested among populations of alpine species with wide elevational ranges, how do their uppermost populations contend with lower visitation? We investigated visitation rates and pollen limitation in high Andean Rhodolirium montanum. We test the hypothesis that lower visitation rates at high elevations are compensated for by the possession of long-lived flowers. Visitation rates decreased markedly over elevation as temperature decreased. Pollen limitation was absent at the low elevation site but did occur at the high elevation site. While initiation of stigmatic pollen deposition at high elevations was not delayed, rates of pollen arrival were lower, and cessation of pollination, as reflected by realized flower longevity, occurred later in the flower lifespan. Comparison of the elevational visitation decline and levels of pollen limitation indicates that flower longevity partially compensates for the lower visitation rates at high elevation. The functional role of flower longevity, however, was strongly masked by qualitative pollen limitation arising from higher abortion levels attributable to transference of genetically low-quality pollen in large clones. Stronger clonal growth at high elevations could counterbalance the negative fitness consequences of residual pollen limitation due to low visitation rates and/or difficult establishment under colder conditions. Visitation rates on the lower part of the elevational range greatly exceeded community rates recorded several decades ago when the planet was cooler. Current pollen limitation for some species in some habitats might underestimate historical levels. Oxford University Press 2017-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC5716155/ /pubmed/29225762 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plx050 Text en © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Arroyo, Mary T K
Pacheco, Diego Andrés
Dudley, Leah S
Functional role of long-lived flowers in preventing pollen limitation in a high elevation outcrossing species
title Functional role of long-lived flowers in preventing pollen limitation in a high elevation outcrossing species
title_full Functional role of long-lived flowers in preventing pollen limitation in a high elevation outcrossing species
title_fullStr Functional role of long-lived flowers in preventing pollen limitation in a high elevation outcrossing species
title_full_unstemmed Functional role of long-lived flowers in preventing pollen limitation in a high elevation outcrossing species
title_short Functional role of long-lived flowers in preventing pollen limitation in a high elevation outcrossing species
title_sort functional role of long-lived flowers in preventing pollen limitation in a high elevation outcrossing species
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5716155/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29225762
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plx050
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