Heterospecific pollen deposition among plants sharing hummingbird pollinators in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Fonseca, Lorena Coutinho Nery da; Rech, André Rodrigo; Bergamo, Pedro Joaquim; Gonçalves-Esteves, Vânia; Sazima, Marlies

doi:10.1590/2175-7860201667205

Cited by 18 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…For instance, similar anther height leads to an increase in the potential for heterospecific pollen transfer in the Atlantic forest (Fonseca et al. ), which potentially can reduce plant fitness. On the other hand, flower color similarity did not explain higher overlap in pollinator use, which is likely a consequence of the lack of color preferences by hummingbirds (Lunau et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These measurements can be used as an estimate of the position of pollen placement and transfer on the pollinator body (Rocca and Sazima , Fonseca et al. ). Floral color was measured as the spectral reflectance of the petals using a USB4000 spectrophotometer (OceanOptics, Inc., Dunedin, Florida, USA) coupled with a deuterium‐halogen light source (DH‐2000; OceanOptics, Inc., Ostfildern, Germany), with a light emission range between 215 and 1,700 nm.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The potential indirect effects among plants via shared hummingbird pollinators are structured by phenotypic similarity

Bergamo

Wolowski

Maruyama

et al. 2017

Ecology

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Plant species within communities may overlap in pollinators' use and influence visitation patterns of shared pollinators, potentially engaging in indirect interactions (e.g., facilitation or competition). While several studies have explored the mechanisms regulating insect-pollination networks, there is a lack of studies on bird-pollination systems, particularly in species-rich tropical areas. Here, we evaluated if phenotypic similarity, resource availability (floral abundance), evolutionary relatedness and flowering phenology affect the potential for indirect effects via shared pollinators in hummingbird-pollinated plant species within four communities in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Among the evaluated factors, phenotypic similarity (corolla length and anther height) was the most important variable, while resource availability (floral abundance) had a secondary importance. On the other hand, evolutionary relatedness and flowering phenology were less important, which altogether highlights the relevance of convergent evolution and that the contribution of a plant to the diet of the pollinators of another plant is independent of the level of temporal overlap in flowering in this tropical system. Interestingly, our findings contrast with results from multiple insect-pollinated plant communities, mostly from temperate regions, in which floral abundance was the most important driver, followed by evolutionary relatedness and phenotypic similarity. We propose that these contrasting results are due to high level of specialization inherent to tropical hummingbird-pollination systems. Moreover, our results demonstrated that factors defining linkage rules of plant-hummingbird networks also determinate plant-plant potential indirect effects. Future studies are needed to test if these findings can be generalized to other highly specialized systems. Overall, our results have important implications for the understanding of ecological processes due resource sharing in mutualistic systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The potential indirect effects among plants via shared hummingbird pollinators are structured by phenotypic similarity

Bergamo

Wolowski

Maruyama

et al. 2017

Ecology

Self Cite

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“…These results suggest that plant species can benefit from the facilitation of flowering together while avoiding heterospecific pollen deposition through fine adjustments on pollen placement (Moeller 2004, Sargent and Ackerly 2008, Stewart and Dudash 2017. Moreover, heterospecific pollen deposition has stronger negative effects between closely related species (Arceo-Gómez and Ashman 2016), including hummingbird-pollinated plant species (Fonseca et al 2016). Thus, if only distantly related species are flowering together, there is a reduced chance of negative effects due to hummingbirds sharing.…”

Section: Trait Patterns Along the Phenologymentioning

confidence: 96%

Trait patterns across space and time suggest an interplay of facilitation and competition acting on Neotropical hummingbird‐pollinated plant communities

Bergamo

Wolowski

Maruyama

et al. 2018

Oikos

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Pollinators may influence plant community assembly through biotic filtering and/or plant–plant competition and facilitation. The relative importance of each process, however, vary according to the scale and how strongly plants share their pollinators, and possibly in relation to the pollinator groups considered. We here investigated the assembly of three Atlantic forest hummingbird‐pollinated plant communities across space (among all species in the communities) and time, i.e. yearly flowering phenology (between pairs of co‐flowering species), based on the pairwise distances of multiple floral traits (corolla length, anther and stigma height, colour and nectar). Because tropical hummingbird‐pollinated plants are often subdivided in two pollination niches (hermits versus non‐hermits), we also analyzed these groups separately. We found that trait structure across space was clustered for some floral traits, suggesting biotic filtering and facilitation. All floral traits had weak phylogenetic signal, indicating that closely related species were not more similar than distantly related species. Moreover, floral traits were randomly structured along the phenology when analyzing all plants together. On the other hand, we found similar corolla length but divergent anther height in co‐flowering pairs within the same pollination niche. Thus, plants may benefit from flowering together and avoid competition through fine adjustments in reproductive traits. The results also suggest that clear signals of competition and facilitation among plants are only apparent when species strongly share their pollinators and depending on the traits that are considered. Our study illustrates a complex interplay of biotic filtering, facilitation and competition as processes structuring guilds of plants sharing the same functional group of pollinators.

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“…This strategy of floral morphology would be advantageous for the plant by increasing the number of potential pollinator species, and by reducing nectar robbing by short‐billed hummingbirds (Rengifo et al ., ). However, the hummingbirds of the Brazilian Atlantic forest share the majority of the available floral resources (Buzato, Sazima & Sazima, ), and will thus typically carry a mixture of pollen on their bodies (Fonseca et al ., ), which would probably be disadvantageous for the plant when large amounts of heterospecific pollen are deposited on its flowers (Arceo‐Gómez & Ashman, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does beak size predict the pollination performance of hummingbirds at long and tubular flowers? A case study of a Neotropical spiral ginger

Missagia

Alves

2018

Journal of Zoology

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Long‐billed hummingbirds are assumed to be better adapted than short‐billed ones for the pollination of long tubular flowers. However, the majority of the empirical evidence is derived from surveys of pollinator feeding performance, which tend to ignore the implications for plant fitness. Here, we tested the long‐billed performance hypothesis from the perspective of the pollinated plant. We conducted a comparative survey to evaluate fecundity in relation to the length of the beak of the pollinating hummingbirds visiting the long and tubular flowers of Costus spiralis (Costaceae), in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. The flowers of C. spiralis were pollinated by three hummingbird species and their nectar was thieved by the bee Eulaema sp. There was no significant difference in the frequency of floral visits nor in the production of seeds among the three hummingbirds in fruits formed from flowers exposed to a single visit by each pollinator. Unexpectedly, our results indicate that the floral morphology of C. spiralis is equally compatible with long‐ and short‐billed pollinators, and is apparently incompatible with pollination by large insects. These findings emphasize the need to test the performance of each floral visitor with the simultaneous estimation of the intensity of the interactions, to increase the accuracy of the measurement of the pollinator's relative importance in studies of plant–pollinator interactions in ornithophilous systems.

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Heterospecific pollen deposition among plants sharing hummingbird pollinators in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Cited by 18 publications

References 31 publications

The potential indirect effects among plants via shared hummingbird pollinators are structured by phenotypic similarity

The potential indirect effects among plants via shared hummingbird pollinators are structured by phenotypic similarity

Trait patterns across space and time suggest an interplay of facilitation and competition acting on Neotropical hummingbird‐pollinated plant communities

Does beak size predict the pollination performance of hummingbirds at long and tubular flowers? A case study of a Neotropical spiral ginger

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