The gravity of pollination: integrating at‐site features into spatial analysis of contemporary pollen movement

Summary Dispersal is essential for species to survive the threats of habitat destruction and climate change. Combining descriptions of dispersal ability with those of landscape structure, the concept of functional connectivity has been popular for understanding and predicting species’ spatial responses to environmental change. Following recent advances, the functional connectivity concept is now able to move beyond landscape structure to consider more explicitly how other external factors such as climate and resources affect species movement. We argue that these factors, in addition to a consideration of the complete dispersal process, are critical for an accurate understanding of functional connectivity for plant species in response to environmental change. We use recent advances in dispersal, landscape and molecular ecology to describe how a range of external factors can influence effective dispersal in plant species, and how the resulting functional connectivity can be assessed. Synthesis. We define plant functional connectivity as the effective dispersal of propagules or pollen among habitat patches in a landscape. Plant functional connectivity is determined by a combination of landscape structure, interactions between plant, environment and dispersal vectors, and the successful establishment of individuals. We hope that this consolidation of recent research will help focus future connectivity research and conservation.

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“…), and to quantify how between‐site and at‐site habitat characteristics differentially influence vector movements (DiLeo et al . ; Dyer ).…”

Section: Assessing Plant Functional Connectivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant functional connectivity – integrating landscape structure and effective dispersal

et al. 2017

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“…Several factors acting locally could produce the observed SGS asymmetry. For example, the non-random movement of pollinators driven by preferences for plant traits, or micro-environmental factors, may produce heterogeneous patterns of gene flow12. These environmental factors could also affect seed germination and seedling establishment, contributing to directionally biased SGS35.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The extent and strength of SGS depends on seed and pollen dispersal strategies as well as on mating system189. Moreover, dispersal can be directionally biased, resulting in differences in IBD intensity at different spatial directions10111213 that promote spatial asymmetric SGS, a pattern also occurring at fine-scales5. This spatial asymmetry usually responds to environmental heterogeneity1011.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This spatial asymmetry usually responds to environmental heterogeneity1011. At-site variability in ecological conditions can create differences in habitat suitability and, therefore, affect genetic connectivity via seed or pollen dispersal1214. Regarding the latter, an increasing number of studies are analysing environmental heterogeneity to understand fine-scale SGS and its effects on population dynamics and evolution.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Inter-annual maintenance of the fine-scale genetic structure in a biennial plant

Valverde

Gómez

García

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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Within plant populations, space-restricted gene movement, together with environmental heterogeneity, can result in a spatial variation in gene frequencies. In biennial plants, inter-annual flowering migrants can homogenize gene frequencies between consecutive cohorts. However, the actual impact of these migrants on spatial genetic variation remains unexplored. Here, we used 10 nuclear microsatellite and one plastid genetic marker to characterize the spatial genetic structure within two consecutive cohorts in a population of the biennial plant Erysimum mediohispanicum (Brassicaceae). We explored the maintenance of this structure between consecutive flowering cohorts at different levels of complexity, and investigated landscape effects on gene flow. We found that cohorts were not genetically differentiated and showed a spatial genetic structure defined by a negative genetic-spatial correlation at fine scale that varied in intensity with compass directions. This spatial genetic structure was maintained when comparing plants from different cohorts. Additionally, genotypes were consistently associated with environmental factors such as light availability and soil composition, but to a lesser extent compared with the spatial autocorrelation. We conclude that inter-annual migrants, in combination with limited seed dispersal and environmental heterogeneity, play a major role in shaping and maintaining the spatial genetic structure among cohorts in this biennial plant.

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“…More recently, DiLeo et al . (), Marrotte et al . (), and Pflüger & Balkenhol () used regression and model selection (Burnham & Anderson ) to partition the effects of at‐site and between‐site habitat quality on gene flow.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Node‐based measures of connectivity in genetic networks

Koen

Bowman

Wilson

2015

Molecular Ecology Resources

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At-site environmental conditions can have strong influences on genetic connectivity, and in particular on the immigration and settlement phases of dispersal. However, at-site processes are rarely explored in landscape genetic analyses. Networks can facilitate the study of at-site processes, where network nodes are used to model site-level effects. We used simulated genetic networks to compare and contrast the performance of 7 node-based (as opposed to edge-based) genetic connectivity metrics. We simulated increasing node connectivity by varying migration in two ways: we increased the number of migrants moving between a focal node and a set number of recipient nodes, and we increased the number of recipient nodes receiving a set number of migrants. We found that two metrics in particular, the average edge weight and the average inverse edge weight, varied linearly with simulated connectivity. Conversely, node degree was not a good measure of connectivity. We demonstrated the use of average inverse edge weight to describe the influence of at-site habitat characteristics on genetic connectivity of 653 American martens (Martes americana) in Ontario, Canada. We found that highly connected nodes had high habitat quality for marten (deep snow and high proportions of coniferous and mature forest) and were farther from the range edge. We recommend the use of node-based genetic connectivity metrics, in particular, average edge weight or average inverse edge weight, to model the influences of at-site habitat conditions on the immigration and settlement phases of dispersal.

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The gravity of pollination: integrating at‐site features into spatial analysis of contemporary pollen movement

Cited by 29 publications

References 54 publications

Plant functional connectivity – integrating landscape structure and effective dispersal

Plant functional connectivity – integrating landscape structure and effective dispersal

Inter-annual maintenance of the fine-scale genetic structure in a biennial plant

Node‐based measures of connectivity in genetic networks

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