Elevated temperature drives a shift from selfing to outcrossing in the insect-pollinated legume, faba bean (Vicia faba).

ABSTRACT: Climate change can threaten the reproductive success of plants, both directly, through physiological damage during increasingly extreme weather events, and indirectly, through disruption of plant-pollinator interactions. To explore how plant-pollinator interactions are modified by extreme weather, we exposed faba bean (Vicia faba) plants to elevated temperature for 5 d during flowering, simulating a heatwave. We then moved the plants to flight cages with either bumblebees or no pollinators, or to two field sites, where plants were enclosed in mesh bags or pollinated by wild insect communities. We used a morphological marker to quantify pollen movement between experimental plants. There was a substantial increase in the level of outcrossing by insect pollinators following heat stress. Propo

SUBMITTER: Bishop J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5429019 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature