Floral colour versus phylogeny in structuring subalpine flowering communities

McEwen, Jamie R.; Vamosi, Jana C.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.0501

Cited by 89 publications

(146 citation statements)

References 91 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

132

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Of five subalpine meadows between 1500 and 1700 m elevation studied by McEwen & Vamosi (2010) in Alberta, Canada, one had a statistically significant degree of phylogenetic clustering and one showed a significant degree of floral colour diversity, but the patterns in other communities were not significantly different from random expectations. This study was exemplary in combining phylogenetic comparative analyses with spectrophotometric measurement of floral reflectance, although 'colour' was quantified by principal component analysis of the reflectance spectra without reference to any pollinator visual system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used the mean pair-wise phylogenetic distance (MPD) between species in each vegetation group as the metric of structure (Webb et al 2002;McEwen & Vamosi 2010). The significance of this metric was tested by comparison to a null distribution derived from 10 000 random permutations (ii) Phylogenetic signal for floral colour…”

Section: A T a A N A L Y S I S (I) Phylogenetic Structure Within Almentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Flower colour and phylogeny along an altitudinal gradient in the Himalayas of Nepal

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary1. Both the phylogenetic structure and trait composition of flowering plant communities may be expected to change with altitude. In particular, floral colours are thought to vary with altitude because Hymenoptera typically decline in importance as pollinators while Diptera and Lepidoptera become more important at higher elevations. Thus, ecological filtering among elevation zones and competitive processes among co-occurring species within zones could influence the floral chromatic cues present at low and high elevations. 2. We collected data from 107 species of native flowering plants in the Himalaya Mountains of central Nepal over an elevation range of 900-4100 m, which includes habitat ranging from subtropical to subalpine within a relatively small geographical area. Using a phylogenetic framework, we asked whether and how flower colour diversity differed between species assemblages at lower and higher elevation, between monocots and eudicots, and between our sample from central Nepal and angiosperms from other regions of the world. 3. There was significant phylogenetic clustering in the communities as a result of monocots, particularly orchids, which were found overwhelmingly at lower elevations. Phylogenetic signal for floral colours indicated that related species had colours that were more disparate than expected under Brownian motion evolution. Floral colours were significantly more diverse in the higher elevation subalpine zone than in the subtropical zone. However, the chromatic cues at both elevations were consistent with the hue discrimination abilities of the trichromatic hymenopteran visual system. 4. Synthesis. Flower colour is not highly differentiated between subtropical and subalpine vegetation due to differences in the available orders of insect pollinators, or by the rate or direction of colour evolution in the lineages composing the two communities. Differences in colour diversity between zones may reflect differences in the ecologically available morphospace based on pollinator species richness and the constancy of their foraging behaviour. The chromatic signals present in Nepali species are similar to the signals found in insect-pollinated floras of other regions of the world.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A T a A N A L Y S I S (I) Phylogenetic Structure Within Almentioning

confidence: 99%

Flower colour and phylogeny along an altitudinal gradient in the Himalayas of Nepal

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Enhanced discrimination by pollinators could benefit plants as well, if it increases the chance that bees will transport pollen to conspecific plants on subsequent visits (Levin, 1978). For example, McEwan and Vamosi recently reported that within alpine plant communities, the colors of species that flower at similar times are more different from each other than predicted by chance (McEwan and Vamosi, 2010). This finding is consistent with a scenario wherein pollinators experience uncertainty in color signals and plants thus benefit by having flowers that are distinctly different from others in the same habitat.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flowers help bees cope with uncertainty: signal detection and the function of floral complexity

Leonard

Dornhaus

Papaj

2011

Journal of Experimental Biology

148

105

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SUMMARYPlants often attract pollinators with floral displays composed of visual, olfactory, tactile and gustatory stimuli. Since pollinators' responses to each of these stimuli are usually studied independently, the question of why plants produce multi-component floral displays remains relatively unexplored. Here we used signal detection theory to test the hypothesis that complex displays reduce a pollinator's uncertainty about the floral signal. Specifically, we asked whether one component of the floral display, scent, improved a bee's certainty about the value of another component, color hue. We first trained two groups of bumble bees (Bombus impatiens Cresson) to discriminate between rewarding and unrewarding artificial flowers of slightly different hues in the presence vs absence of scent. In a test phase, we presented these bees with a gradient of floral hues and assessed their ability to identify the hue rewarded during training. We interpreted the extent to which bees' preferences were biased away from the unrewarding hue ('peak shift') as an indicator of uncertainty in color discrimination. Our data show that the presence of an olfactory signal reduces uncertainty regarding color: not only was color learning facilitated on scented flowers but also bees showed a lower amount of peak shift in the presence of scent. We explore potential mechanisms by which scent might reduce uncertainty about color, and discuss the broader significance of our results for our understanding of signal evolution. Supplementary material available online at

show abstract

“…In the same way as in pollination, fruit characteristics such as size and color are associated to dispersal mode and dispersers (Wheelwright 1985;Flörchinger et al 2010;Galetti et al 2011;Cazetta et al 2012). Among the ecological processes shaping community structure (facilitation, competition and filtering), floral color diversity organizes alpine meadow communities through facilitation (McEwen & Vamosi 2010), and floral resource, size, color and shape are probably limiting the similarity among montane co-occurring species due to reproductive competition (Eaton et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional diversity of reproductive traits increases across succession in the Atlantic forest

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Niche and neutral processes shape community assembly with a possible shift of niche and neutral importance in communities undergoing temporal changes during succession. Functional diversity helps to discriminate assembly processes since trait distribution is dependent on those processes. We evaluated the changes in reproductive traits related to pollination and seed dispersal in a successional gradient in an Atlantic Forest area, Southern Brazil. We surveyed forests undergoing regeneration varying in age from 2 to 80 years after pasture abandonment. We expected an increase in functional diversity of reproductive traits and a greater role of limiting similarity across succession. Abiotic and mixed pollination systems, dioecious sexual system, biotic dispersed, many-seeded and small-seeded species decreased as the forest got older. Conversely, bee-pollinated, bell-shaped, small and androgynous flowers increased across forest succession as well biotic dispersed and large-seeded species. Functional richness and functional dispersion were higher in older forests. Changes in functional diversity were positively related to species richness, indicating that species enrichment in older forests added new sets of reproductive traits. These changes in trait distribution and functional diversity across succession in the Atlantic Forest suggest an increased role of biotic interactions and limiting similarity process structuring plant assemblages of second-growth tropical forests. Key words: dispersal, functional dispersion, pollination, forest regeneration, functional richness. ResumoAs florestas apresentam um enriquecimento gradual de espécies e um aumento em complexidade estrutural e funcional durante a sucessão. Este trabalho caracterizou os traços reprodutivos de plantas relacionados à polinização e à dispersão em um gradiente sucessional, em uma área de Mata Atlântica, Sul do Brasil. O levantamento das espécies foi realizado em áreas florestais sucessionais oriundas de regeneração natural, em idades variando entre 2 e 80 anos após o abandono da pastagem. Houve predominância de flores polinizadas por abelhas, abertas, hermafroditas e que disponibilizam o pólen como em todos estádios sucessionais. Os sistemas de polinização abiótico e misto, sistema sexual dióico, espécies com dispersão abiótica, com muitas sementes e sementes pequenas diminuíram com a idade das florestas. Espécies polinizadas por abelhas, flores com corola funil/sino, como de corola pequena e andróginas assim como espécies dispersas bioticamente e com sementes grandes aumentaram no gradiente sucessional. A riqueza funcional e a dispersão funcional aumentaram no gradiente sucessional. As mudanças da diversidade funcional foram relacionadas com o aumento da riqueza de espécies indicando que o enriquecimento de espécies em florestas mais velhas adicionou novos conjuntos de traços reprodutivos. Estas mudanças de distribuição de traços e de diversidade funcional no gradiente sucessional sugerem um incremento do papel de interações bióticas na estrutura...

show abstract

Floral colour versus phylogeny in structuring subalpine flowering communities

Cited by 89 publications

References 91 publications

Flower colour and phylogeny along an altitudinal gradient in the Himalayas of Nepal

Flower colour and phylogeny along an altitudinal gradient in the Himalayas of Nepal

Flowers help bees cope with uncertainty: signal detection and the function of floral complexity

Functional diversity of reproductive traits increases across succession in the Atlantic forest

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About