Nectar Variation in Simple and Compound Flowers; and its Effects on Plant Pollinator Interactions

Abstract

Pollinators play an important role within a variety of ecosystems but are experiencing declines. In recent years, climate change has been affecting the mutualistic relationship between these organisms and the corresponding plants they interact with. It is important to closely study interactions such as visitation patterns to predict future behaviors more accurately. Visitation patterns vary greatly based on a variety of different factors such as availability of resources, competition, and morphology. In this study, the quantity and concentration of sugar in nectar across a variety of both simple and compound flower species was assessed by comparing umbellets to flowers. Upon analyzing the initial data, significant variance across all species studied was found with higher concentrations of nectar sugar appearing in compound umbellets (likely due to smaller flower size) and overall higher nectar volume appearing in simple flowers. Flower counts were also conducted, separately, to scale up the data and make an assessment regarding the population of each species sampled. This data was then analyzed to understand Bombus flavifrons’s plant visitation preferences from an energy cost/reward standpoint across both morphologies, in which it was found they prefer simple flowers likely due to too viscous nectar appearing in compound flowers, as well as the higher visitation frequency required in smaller flowers to fulfill the same nectar requirement. Further studies need to be done to support this theory. Steinmann 2

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