Pollen dispersal pattern assessment in three insect-pollinated bog species
(2011) SCAPE (Scandinavian Association for Pollination Ecologists) — Location: Vingstedcentret, Denmark (27.October.2011)
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- Abstract
- Over the last centuries, habitat fragmentation through human activities, resulting in small and isolated plant populations, are major threats to plant-pollinator networks. The degree of response to habitat fragmentation, depending from one species to another, is related to specific life traits like reproductive system, adaptability or pollination mode. Plants can propagate through vegetative multiplication, sexual reproduction or both. Vegetative multiplication leads to clonal patches within population enhancing the risk of self-pollination through geitonogamy between inflorescences of the same genet, depending on pollinator behaviour. Pollen dispersal is often the major contributing factor to gene flow. Measuring pollen dispersal within populations is essential to assess gene flow and maintenance of genetic diversity. We assessed pollen flow through fluorescent dye as pollen analogues in four model plants growing in highly fragmented bogs in High Belgium and differing in compatibility system and pollinator guild: Comarum palustre, a self-compatible, insect-pollinated and generalist species; Menyanthes trifoliata, an insect-pollinated and generalist species, showing floral dimorphism unabling self-pollination and self-compatibility; Vaccinium uliginosum, self-compatible, pollinated by specialist insects (e.g. Bombus species); and Vaccinium oxycoccos, also self-compatible but barely visited by specialist insects. Pollen transfer limitations were also assessed in each population of the four species. No species did suffer from pollen limitation. Furthermore, fluorescent pollen analogues were dispersed over the whole populations in almost all investigated study sites for the four species. This suggests at least that a sufficient pollen transfer still remains.
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Citations
Somme, L., Van Rossum, F., Mayer, C., Jacquemart, A.-L., & Michez, D. (2011). Pollen dispersal pattern assessment in three insect-pollinated bog species. SCAPE (Scandinavian Association for Pollination Ecologists), Vingstedcentret, Denmark. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/200171