Community-wide assessment of pollen limitation in hummingbird-pollinated plants of a tropical montane rain forest.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Although pollen limitation of reproduction (PL) has been widely studied, our understanding of its occurrence in tropical communities, especially for bird-pollinated plants, is underdeveloped. In addition, inclusion of both quantity and quality aspects in studies of PL are generally lacking. Within hummingbird-pollinated plants, a prediction was made for higher PL for the quality than quantity aspects and a minor effect of temporal variation because hummingbirds are constant and efficient pollen vectors but they may transfer low quality pollen.

Methods

Field hand and open pollination experiments were conducted on 21 species in a tropical montane rain forest over 2 years. The quantity (fruit set and seeds per fruit) and quality (seed weight and germination)

SUBMITTER: Wolowski M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3747794 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature