Comparing pollen distribution on pollinators to floral community composition in the East River Valley

Abstract

While plant-pollinator networks are salient markers of biodiversity, their mechanisms remain poorly understood. One theory describing pollination interactions is the Neutral Theory of Biodiversity, which asserts that plant-pollinator interactions are neutral, random processes based on species’ abundances. Other theories emphasize the importance of niches and species’ identities and traits in the pollination process. This study explores whether plant-pollinator interactions over June and July 2021 across two sites in the East River Valley, CO, are neutral or non-neutral by comparing the pollen diversity on solitary bees to that of the local floral community. Solitary bees were caught in transects and vortexed in the lab to obtain their collected pollen. Pollen slides were made from the collected pollen, and the pollen was counted and identified under a microscope. From a two-sample t-test and a generalized linear mixed effects model run in R, the pollen diversity on the solitary bees was found to be significantly different from the floral community diversity, indicating non-neutral interactions and implying potential solitary bee preferences for flowers with larger display sizes, shorter flower height, and wider corolla widths. Flower color is another possible contributor to bee preference; however, further studies directly comparing different flower colors are needed. Future studies examining the connection between the floral traits and floral rewards could reveal important plant-pollinator network mechanisms.

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