Floral Complexity Traits as Predictors of Plant-Bee Interactions in a Mediterranean Pollination Web.

ABSTRACT: Despite intensive research, predicting pairwise species associations in pollination networks remains a challenge. The morphological fit between flowers and pollinators acts as a filter that allows only some species within the network to interact. Previous studies emphasized the depth of floral tubes as a key shape trait that explains the composition of their animal visitors. Yet, additional shape-related parameters, related to the handling difficulty of flowers, may be important as well. We analyzed a dataset of 2288 visits by six bee genera to 53 flowering species in a Mediterranean plant community. We characterized the plant species by five discrete shape parameters, which potentially affect their accessibility to insects: floral shape class, tube depth, symmetry, corolla segmentation an

SUBMITTER: Ornai A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7694153 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature