Covariation among reproductive traits in flowering plants shapes their interactions with pollinators
(2023) In Functional Ecology 37(7). p.2072-2084- Abstract
Globally, plants display enormous variation in life-history strategies and trait combinations. However, evidence suggests that evolutionary and physiological constraints limit the number of plant ecological strategies. Although there have been recent advances in understanding correlations among plant traits, reproductive traits are rarely considered, despite their key role in shaping plant life-history strategies and interactions with pollinators. Here, using a global dataset of 18 reproductive traits for 1506 species, we investigate the reproductive spectrum of flowering plants to identify how it shapes interactions with pollinators. We show that over 50% of all trait variation is explained by the first two reproductive axes, which... (More)
Globally, plants display enormous variation in life-history strategies and trait combinations. However, evidence suggests that evolutionary and physiological constraints limit the number of plant ecological strategies. Although there have been recent advances in understanding correlations among plant traits, reproductive traits are rarely considered, despite their key role in shaping plant life-history strategies and interactions with pollinators. Here, using a global dataset of 18 reproductive traits for 1506 species, we investigate the reproductive spectrum of flowering plants to identify how it shapes interactions with pollinators. We show that over 50% of all trait variation is explained by the first two reproductive axes, which represent the negative correlation between flower number and flower size, and the negative correlation between autonomous selfing and floral display size. In addition, these reproductive axes were associated with the identity and number of visits of the distinct pollinator guilds. However, reproductive axes explain a relatively small amount of variance in pollinator interactions highlighting the need to incorporate other factors along with reproductive traits to fully explain large-scale patterns of plant–pollinator interactions. Our study identifies the major reproductive trait correlations in flowering plants and their role in shaping plant–pollinator interactions at a macro-ecological scale. These findings emphasise the importance of considering reproductive traits in the global spectrum of plant form and function, and the need to explore beyond floral morphological traits to broaden our understanding of plant–pollinator interactions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
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- author
- B. Lanuza, Jose ; Rader, Romina ; Stavert, Jamie ; Kendall, Liam K. LU ; Saunders, Manu E. and Bartomeus, Ignasi
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-04-23
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- life-history strategies, plant reproductive traits, plant–pollinator interactions
- in
- Functional Ecology
- volume
- 37
- issue
- 7
- pages
- 2072 - 2084
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85153535378
- ISSN
- 0269-8463
- DOI
- 10.1111/1365-2435.14340
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Functional Ecology © 2023 British Ecological Society.
- id
- 73a5fa5b-406a-43a7-bbba-461535ef5ec6
- date added to LUP
- 2023-07-04 11:38:38
- date last changed
- 2023-07-05 16:06:05
@article{73a5fa5b-406a-43a7-bbba-461535ef5ec6,
abstract = {{<p>Globally, plants display enormous variation in life-history strategies and trait combinations. However, evidence suggests that evolutionary and physiological constraints limit the number of plant ecological strategies. Although there have been recent advances in understanding correlations among plant traits, reproductive traits are rarely considered, despite their key role in shaping plant life-history strategies and interactions with pollinators. Here, using a global dataset of 18 reproductive traits for 1506 species, we investigate the reproductive spectrum of flowering plants to identify how it shapes interactions with pollinators. We show that over 50% of all trait variation is explained by the first two reproductive axes, which represent the negative correlation between flower number and flower size, and the negative correlation between autonomous selfing and floral display size. In addition, these reproductive axes were associated with the identity and number of visits of the distinct pollinator guilds. However, reproductive axes explain a relatively small amount of variance in pollinator interactions highlighting the need to incorporate other factors along with reproductive traits to fully explain large-scale patterns of plant–pollinator interactions. Our study identifies the major reproductive trait correlations in flowering plants and their role in shaping plant–pollinator interactions at a macro-ecological scale. These findings emphasise the importance of considering reproductive traits in the global spectrum of plant form and function, and the need to explore beyond floral morphological traits to broaden our understanding of plant–pollinator interactions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.</p>}},
author = {{B. Lanuza, Jose and Rader, Romina and Stavert, Jamie and Kendall, Liam K. and Saunders, Manu E. and Bartomeus, Ignasi}},
issn = {{0269-8463}},
keywords = {{life-history strategies; plant reproductive traits; plant–pollinator interactions}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
number = {{7}},
pages = {{2072--2084}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Functional Ecology}},
title = {{Covariation among reproductive traits in flowering plants shapes their interactions with pollinators}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14340}},
doi = {{10.1111/1365-2435.14340}},
volume = {{37}},
year = {{2023}},
}