How pollinator-mediated mating varies with population size in plants
OecologiaPublished 1 December 1994
Anna‐Lena Fritz, L. Anders Nilsson
Citations114
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score0.97
SNIP1.01
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
Investigating variation in pollen removal and fruit set among flowering populations of different size of two bumblebee-and one butterfly-pollinated, rewardless, pollen-limited, hermaphroditic orchid species in Sweden empirically verify the basic importance of population size for the mating structure of outcrossing plants, and indicates that selection for female sexual traits is reinforced when population size is smaller while selection for male sexual traits are reinforced whenpopulation size is larger.
Abstract
In most higher plants sexual interactions are mediated by animal pollinators that affect the number and differential reproductive success of mates. The number and sex of breeding individuals in populations are central factors in evolutionary theory, but the quantitative effect of plant population size on pollinator-mediated mating is understudied. We investigated variation in pollen removal (male function) and fruit set (female function) among flowering populations of different size of two bumblebee-and one butterfly-pollinated, rewardless, pollen-limited, hermaphroditic orchid species in Sweden. As the amount of pollen removed from plants by insects (either absolute or proportional) increased, so did the number of pollinations, whereas the proportions of plants with different pollinator-designated functional sex (male, female, hermaphrodite) depended primarily on the ratio between the amount of fruit set and pollen removed within populations. A larger population size was found to have several effects: (1) the total numbers of pollinia removed and fruits set increased; (2) the proportion of pollen removed from plants decreased; (3) the proportion of flowers pollinated decreased in the butterfly-but was not affected in the bumblebee-pollinated species; (4) the ratio between fruits set and pollinia removed increased linearly in the bumblebee-pollinated species but reached a maximum at c. 80 individuals in the butterfly-pollinated species; (5) the numbers of pollinator-designated pure male and hermaphrodite individuals increased; and (6) the variance in pollinium removal, but not fruit set, increased among individuals. These findings empirically verify the basic importance of population size for the mating structure of outcrossing plants, and indicate that selection for female sexual traits is reinforced when population size is smaller while selection for male sexual traits is reinforced when population size is larger.
Keywords
Agricultural and Biological SciencesEnvironmental Science
Clarendon Press eBooksThe genetical theory of natural selection
17,589 Citations1930Ronald Aylmer Fisher
ScienceGenetics and Demography in Biological Conservation
2,463 Citations1988Russell Lande
The practical need in biological conservation for understanding the interaction of demographic and genetic factors in extinction may provide a focus for fundamental advances at the interface of ecology and evolution.
BioScienceMinimum Population Sizes for Species Conservation
2,002 Citations1981Mark L. Shaffer
The old adage that "the bigger the reserve, the better" must be replaced with more precise prescriptions for how much land is enough to achieve conservation objectives.
Evolutionary BiologyGene Flow in Seed Plants
924 Citations1974Donald A. Levin, Harold W. Kerster
Gene dispersal (flow) within and between plant populations has been of continuous interest to plant breeders and seed producers for many decades, but only during the past two decades have a large body of plant evolutionists become interested in information accruing from these studies, and in the rates of gene flow in wild populations.
Conservation BiologyPollination in <i>Dianthus deltoides</i> (Caryophyllaceae): Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Visitation and Seed Set
519 Citations1988Ola Jennersten
The effects of habitat fragmentation on the pollination success of a perennial, butterfly-pollinated, caryophyllaceous herb, the maiden pink, Dianthus deltoides L. Deltoides is analyzed.
OikosGene Flow by Pollen: Implications for Plant Conservation Genetics
456 Citations1992Norman C. Ellstrand
What role gene flow can play in plant conservation genetics is considered, based on what is known of patterns of gene flow by pollen, which is often substantial among plant populations.
EcologyPatch Size, Pollinator Behavior, and Pollinator Limitation in Catnip
444 Citations1987Andrew Sih, Marie-Sylvie Baltus
Patch size affected the rate at which individual flowers received pollinator visits (visitation rate), and honey bees, solitary bees, and bumble bees were the most important floral visitors.
OecologiaResource heterogeneity and patterns of movement in foraging bumblebees
412 Citations1979Bernd Heinrich
The systematic foraging behavior of B. vagans workers foraging from Aconitum napellus inflorescences may be a mechanism of reducing the revisiting of just-emptied flowers.
Trends in Ecology & EvolutionOrchid pollination biology
353 Citations1992L. Anders Nilsson
Recent advances in orchid pollination biology center mainly on floral evolutionary processes, pseudocopulation and other deceptive pollination systems, and flower and fruit production in relation to costs of sexual reproduction.
EDISOrchid Pollination Biology
345 Citations2015Haleigh A. Ray, Wagner A. Vendrame
The various and often strange ways that orchids attract pollinators are detailed, as well as the kinds of insects and animals that pollinate them and their reproductive anatomies and processes.
The American NaturalistAnalysis of Paternity within a Natural Population of Chamaelirium luteum. 1. Identification of Most-Likely Male Parents
345 Citations1986Thomas R. Meagher
The most-likely male parents were identified by using genetic markers and evaluating the statistical likelihoods of paternity for seed collected from known female parents within a natural population of the forest herb Chamaelirium luteum, finding that males had a higher variance in the number of mates, showing a potential for sex-specific selection.
EvolutionMEASUREMENTS OF SELECTION IN A HERMAPHRODITIC PLANT: VARIATION IN MALE AND FEMALE POLLINATION SUCCESS
306 Citations1989Diane R. Campbell
A phenotypic selection analysis revealed that selection due to male‐male competition during pollination was capable of delaying flowering date and widening corolla tubes by 0.22 and 0.24 standard‐deviation units, respectively, in a single generation.
New Zealand Journal of BotanySexual strategies in plants III. A quantitative method for describing the gender of plants
277 Citations1980David G. Lloyd
Gender (maleness or femaleness) is a quantitative phenomenon in plants and numerical estimates of the relative capabilities of plants as pollen and ovule parents have advantages over the verbal morphological descriptions of gender that are traditionally used.
Cambridge University Press eBooksOn the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects
265 Citations2011Charles Darwin
HeredityMate availability in small populations of plant species with homomorphic sporophytic self-incompatibility
254 Citations1992Diane L. Byers, Thomas R. Meagher
A computer simulation model was developed to test the effect of small population size upon the diversity and the relative frequency of the S-alleles which determine the number of available mates in a self-incompatible species.
EvolutionBEE FLOWERS: A HYPOTHESIS ON FLOWER VARIETY AND BLOOMING TIMES
243 Citations1975Bernd Heinrich
The functional significance in the variety and in the assortment of flowers visited primarily by bumblebees in one habitat in Maine is determined and may serve as a model applicable to other plant assemblages and pollinators.
American Journal of BotanyPATTERNS OF FRUIT PRODUCTION IN A NEOTROPICAL ORCHID: POLLINATOR VS. RESOURCE LIMITATION
226 Citations1989Jess K. Zimmerman, T. Mitchell Aide
Patterns of growth, and of flower and fruit production, were monitored over two years in a population of the orchid Aspasia principissa Reichb.
EvolutionPATERNITY ANALYSIS IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF<i>ASCLEPIAS EXALTATA</i>: MULTIPLE PATERNITY, FUNCTIONAL GENDER, AND THE “POLLEN-DONATION HYPOTHESIS”
208 Citations1990Steven B. Broyles, Robert Wyatt
Analysis of functional gender indicated that plants with many flowers did not behave primarily as males and females, and estimates of gender based on numbers of flowers produced or pollinaria removed overestimated the number of functional males in the population.
OecologiaThe significance of genetic erosion in the process of extinction
191 Citations1991N. Joop Ouborg, R. van Treuren +1 more
A positive correlation was observed between the amount of phenotypic variation and population size in Salvia pratensis and Scabiosa columbaria and part of this variation is likely to have a genetic base, although maternal effects were present in the seedling and juvenile life stages.
OecologiaA comparison of distances flown by different visitors to flowers of the same species
176 Citations1982Nickolas M. Waser
There is no evidence that flight characteristics depend on anything as straightforward as whether flower visitors have high or low energetic requirements, and all the visitors to a given plant species fly similar, short distances between successively visited flowers and plants.
EvolutionTHE DEPENDENCE OF BEE‐MEDIATED POLLEN AND GENE DISPERSAL UPON PLANT DENSITY
172 Citations1969Donald A. Levin, Harold W. Kerster
It is shown that bees are highly responsive to plant spacing and that bee-mediated pollen dispersal and associated gene dispersal is strongly correlated with plant spacing, the plant species and floral mechanism notwithstanding.
Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesGene flow by pollen into small populations: Data from experimental and natural stands of wild radish
163 Citations1989Norman C. Ellstrand, Bernie Devlin +1 more
The magnitude of gene flow rates estimated in all but one population was great enough for gene flow to play an important role in the evolution of these small populations.
EcologyThe Ecological Consequences of Flowering Asynchrony in Monoecious Figs: A Simulation Study
148 Citations1990Judith L. Bronstein, Pierre‐Henri Gouyon +3 more
A simulation model developed examines the consequences of population-level flowering asynchrony for individual reproductive success and long-term pollinator maintenance with- in monoecious fig populations and points to the need for precise phenological data for estimating plant fitness and population structure both in models and in the field.
NatureExact tracking of pollen transfer and mating in plants
125 Citations1992L. Anders Nilsson, Elisabeth Rabakonandrianina +1 more
In populations of a hawkmoth-pollinated orchid, Aerangis ellisii, pollen transfers were found to be infrequent, to involve single pollen parents, and to occur mostly within 5 metres, and the microtag method opens an avenue for novel exploration of plant evolution.
EvolutionFLORAL DISPLAY IN <i>PHYLA INCISA</i> : CONSEQUENCES FOR MALE AND FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS
121 Citations1988Mitchell B. Cruzan, Paul R. Neal +1 more
The inflorescences of Phyla incisa consist of flowers in two phases: younger, nectar‐containing flowers that have yellow corolla throats and older, nnect‐lacking flowers that has dark purple corolla throat.
OecologiaEffects of flowering plant's patch size on species composition of pollinator communities, foraging strategies, and resource partitioning in bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae)
118 Citations1989Peter Sowig
It is drawn, that many bumblebee species are able to share the same resource by using different patch sizes, and bumblebees have less difficulties in making the right foraging decisions.
American Journal of BotanyINFLORESCENCE SIZE: TEST OF THE MALE FUNCTION HYPOTHESIS
115 Citations1989Diane R. Campbell
An estimate of the functional femaleness of a plant, based on pollen donation and seed production, increased with flower number, and this estimate did not support the male function hypothesis.
Cellular and Molecular Life SciencesPopulation biology of figs: Applications for conservation
95 Citations1989Doyle McKey
The biology of natural and human- aided range extension by figs and fig wasps is reviewed, and it is shown that in human-aided range extensions these two difficult steps are circumvented.
OecologiaPlant dispersion, pollination and gene flow in Viola
78 Citations1976Andrew J. Beattie
Findings show that gene flow is reduced by pollinator activity over a wide range of spacing parameters but in populations with low spacing means highly localized gene exchange can occur within the colony, corresponding to the “Shifting Balance” view of evolution.
The American NaturalistThe Paternity Pools of Plants
78 Citations1988Donald A. Levin
Characterization of paternity pools provides a framework for better understanding the data from paternity-identification studies and allows insight into the breeding pattern within populations.
HeredityQuantitative genetics of life-history and morphology in a rare plant, Senecio integrifolius
53 Citations1993Björn Widén, Stefan Andersson
That more genetic variability was detected in the small population where plants occur in small and isolated patches indicates that the spatial structure has great effects on the retention of heritable variation, and that demographic and environmental factors are more important in the long-term survival of S. integrifolius.
Nordic Journal of BotanyDeceit pollination of Orchis spitzelii (Orchidaceae) on the Island of Gotland in the Baltic: a suboptimal system
51 Citations1990Anna‐Lena Fritz
P Phenological, morphological and functional data indicate that O. spitzelii is an obligate outcrosser and lacks an effective isolating mechanism against the abundant and concurrently blooming Orchis mascula, and it is proposed that the plant has spread to Gotland in recent time.
Canadian Journal of BotanyFruit and seed set in Mayapple (<i>Podophyllum peltatum</i>): influence of intraspecific factors and local enhancement near <i>Pedicularis canadensis</i>
47 Citations1988Terence M. Laverty, R. C. Plowright
Experimental crosses indicated that Mayapple patches are self-incompatible (clones) and that fruit and seed set were pollinator limited, but clones within 45 m of P. canadensis plants (which are heavily visited by bumblebees) showed significant increases in Fruit and seed production compared with a similar group of more distant clones.
American Journal of BotanyA QUALITATIVE MODEL FOR EVALUATING THE EFFECTS OF FLOWER ATTRACTIVENESS ON MALE AND FEMALE FITNESS IN PLANTS
36 Citations1988Maureen L. Stanton, Robert E. Preston
This work presents an analogous model for studying relationships between pollinator visitation, pollen production, and pollen export, and concludes that for animal-pollinated species where seed production is resource-limited, maternal fitness may be enhanced by conserving resources rather than investing in secondary attractive structures.
EcologyEffects of Mate Size and Mate Number on Male Reproductive Success in Plants
36 Citations1989Robert R. Nakamura, Maureen L. Stanton +1 more
An equation for estimating male RS in panmictic pop- ulations of self-incompatible plants with perfect flowers demonstrates that male RS and plant gender are sensitive to the frequency distribution of mate size and to the number of mates.