The Effects of Climate-Driven Changes in Co-flowering between <i>Linum lewisii</i> and <i>Potentilla pulcherrima</i> on Pollinator Services

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change is affecting many ecosystems. Changes in the melting of snowpack have altered flowering phenology in subalpine meadows. The subalpine meadows at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado are experiencing shifts in co-flowering patterns. Two flowers, Linum lewisii and Potentilla pulcherrima, which had significant historical co-flowering overlap are now having 25% less overlap. The consequences of this shift are not well known and could be having an effect on plant-pollinator interactions. Although L. lewisii is self-compatible, outcrossing results in higher fruit and seed production. This means that pollinator services are important to L. lewisii, as it requires pollination to reproduce more effectively. This decrease in overlap may mean that there is less competition for pollinator services between these two species. This short-term study looked at pollinator visitation rates and pollen deposition on L. lewisii by applying different treatments to plots that decreased flowering overlap even further. Synchrony was manipulated by removing 100% and 50% of P. pulcherrima flowers in different sites. I expect that pollinator visitation rates to L. lewisii are higher and conspecific pollen deposition higher when there is less overlap. This hypothesis was not supported, however. I found that there was no significant difference between the treatments for pollinator visitation rates and conspecific pollen deposition. Assuming the experiment was conducted at a scale to which pollinators respond, this result suggests that climate-induced changes in co- flowering overlap will not have consequences for reproduction in this plant species. 1

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