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Differential Effects of Climate Warming on the Nectar Secretion of Early- and Late-Flowering Mediterranean Plants
Floral nectar is a vital resource for pollinators, thus having a very important role in ecosystem functioning. Ongoing climate warming could have a negative effect on nectar secretion, particularly in the Mediterranean, where a strong temperature rise is expected. In turn, decreased nectar secretion...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6030359/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29997639 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2018.00874 |
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author | Takkis, Krista Tscheulin, Thomas Petanidou, Theodora |
author_facet | Takkis, Krista Tscheulin, Thomas Petanidou, Theodora |
author_sort | Takkis, Krista |
collection | PubMed |
description | Floral nectar is a vital resource for pollinators, thus having a very important role in ecosystem functioning. Ongoing climate warming could have a negative effect on nectar secretion, particularly in the Mediterranean, where a strong temperature rise is expected. In turn, decreased nectar secretion, together with shifts in flowering phenology can disrupt plant–pollinator interactions and consequently affect the entire ecosystem. Under fully controlled conditions, we tested how temperature influenced nectar secretion (through nectar volume, sugar concentration, sugar content, and number of flowers produced) in six Mediterranean plant species flowering from winter to summer (viz. Asphodelus ramosus, Ballota acetabulosa, Echium plantagineum, Lavandula stoechas, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Teucrium divaricatum). We compared the changes in nectar secretion under temperatures expected by the end of the century and estimated the effect of climate warming on nectar secretion of plants flowering in different seasons. We found a significant effect of temperature on nectar secretion, with a negative effect of very high temperatures in all species. Optimal temperatures for nectar secretion were similar to the mean temperatures in the recent past (1958–2001) during the respective flowering time of each species. Increasing temperatures, however, will affect differently the early-flowering (blooming in winter and early spring) and late-flowering species (blooming in late spring and early summer). Temperature rise expected by the end of the century will shift the average temperature beyond the optimal range for flower production and the sugar produced per plant in late-flowering species. Therefore, we expect a future decrease in nectar secretion of late-flowering species, which could reduce the amount of nectar resources available for their pollinators. Early-flowering plants will be less affected (optimal temperatures were not significantly different from the future projected temperatures), and may in some cases even benefit from rising temperatures. However, as many earlier studies have found that early-flowering species are more prone to shifts in phenology, the plant–pollinator interactions could instead become affected in a different manner. Consequently, climate warming will likely have a distinctive effect on both plant and pollinator populations and their interactions across different seasons. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6030359 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-60303592018-07-11 Differential Effects of Climate Warming on the Nectar Secretion of Early- and Late-Flowering Mediterranean Plants Takkis, Krista Tscheulin, Thomas Petanidou, Theodora Front Plant Sci Plant Science Floral nectar is a vital resource for pollinators, thus having a very important role in ecosystem functioning. Ongoing climate warming could have a negative effect on nectar secretion, particularly in the Mediterranean, where a strong temperature rise is expected. In turn, decreased nectar secretion, together with shifts in flowering phenology can disrupt plant–pollinator interactions and consequently affect the entire ecosystem. Under fully controlled conditions, we tested how temperature influenced nectar secretion (through nectar volume, sugar concentration, sugar content, and number of flowers produced) in six Mediterranean plant species flowering from winter to summer (viz. Asphodelus ramosus, Ballota acetabulosa, Echium plantagineum, Lavandula stoechas, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Teucrium divaricatum). We compared the changes in nectar secretion under temperatures expected by the end of the century and estimated the effect of climate warming on nectar secretion of plants flowering in different seasons. We found a significant effect of temperature on nectar secretion, with a negative effect of very high temperatures in all species. Optimal temperatures for nectar secretion were similar to the mean temperatures in the recent past (1958–2001) during the respective flowering time of each species. Increasing temperatures, however, will affect differently the early-flowering (blooming in winter and early spring) and late-flowering species (blooming in late spring and early summer). Temperature rise expected by the end of the century will shift the average temperature beyond the optimal range for flower production and the sugar produced per plant in late-flowering species. Therefore, we expect a future decrease in nectar secretion of late-flowering species, which could reduce the amount of nectar resources available for their pollinators. Early-flowering plants will be less affected (optimal temperatures were not significantly different from the future projected temperatures), and may in some cases even benefit from rising temperatures. However, as many earlier studies have found that early-flowering species are more prone to shifts in phenology, the plant–pollinator interactions could instead become affected in a different manner. Consequently, climate warming will likely have a distinctive effect on both plant and pollinator populations and their interactions across different seasons. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-06-27 /pmc/articles/PMC6030359/ /pubmed/29997639 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2018.00874 Text en Copyright © 2018 Takkis, Tscheulin and Petanidou. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Plant Science Takkis, Krista Tscheulin, Thomas Petanidou, Theodora Differential Effects of Climate Warming on the Nectar Secretion of Early- and Late-Flowering Mediterranean Plants |
title | Differential Effects of Climate Warming on the Nectar Secretion of Early- and Late-Flowering Mediterranean Plants |
title_full | Differential Effects of Climate Warming on the Nectar Secretion of Early- and Late-Flowering Mediterranean Plants |
title_fullStr | Differential Effects of Climate Warming on the Nectar Secretion of Early- and Late-Flowering Mediterranean Plants |
title_full_unstemmed | Differential Effects of Climate Warming on the Nectar Secretion of Early- and Late-Flowering Mediterranean Plants |
title_short | Differential Effects of Climate Warming on the Nectar Secretion of Early- and Late-Flowering Mediterranean Plants |
title_sort | differential effects of climate warming on the nectar secretion of early- and late-flowering mediterranean plants |
topic | Plant Science |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6030359/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29997639 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2018.00874 |
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