Plant adaptation in a changing pollination climate

Introduction

Declines in pollinator populations and changes in the composition of local pollinator assemblages are among the best documented and most worrying consequences of ongoing environmental disruptions. The POLLCLIM project aims to better understand the consequences of these changes in “pollination climate” for animal-pollinated plants.

Project Goals

We will develop a novel conceptual framework for analyzing plant adaptation to a functionally diverse set of pollinators and apply it in empirical studies of a pollination-generalized wildflower.

Methodology

Through observational field studies, controlled experiments, and tailored statistical modeling approaches, we will evaluate the contributions of individual pollinators to natural selection on flowers and other plant phenotypic traits functionally involved in the pollination process. We will also examine how well these refined estimates of pollinator-mediated selection extrapolate to evolutionary population divergence.

Conceptual Framework

Our conceptual framework emphasizes the (likely non-additive) individual contributions of each pollinator species in pollination-generalized plants visited by a functionally diverse set of pollinators.

Study Design

Building on three years of preparatory work, we will study a set of 50 plant populations in southern Scandinavia. The study design includes:

1. Annual population surveys to inform on phenotypic adaptation to local pollinators.
2. Well-replicated selection studies to inform on spatio-temporal variation in selection.
3. Single-pollinator flight-cage experiments to estimate the contribution of each pollinator taxon to selection.
4. Quantitative-genetic analyses to evaluate the relative influence of natural selection and genetic constraints in population divergence.

Expected Outcomes

The expected results will be of direct value for understanding plant responses to pollination climate change and, more generally, the role of selection in the link between micro- and macroevolution.