Many hummingbird-pollinated plant species evolved from bee-pollinated ancestors independently in many different habitats in North and South America. The mechanisms leading to these transitions are not completely understood. We conducted pollination and germination experiments and analysed additional

Last modified: July 3, 2024 IntroductionThis dataset comprises all bee interactions indexed by Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI; Poelen et al. 2014). It is published quarterly by the Big Bee Project (Seltmann et al. 2021) to summarize all available knowledge about bee interactions from natural hist

The study of plant-insect interactions and pollination has just begun to scratch the surface of the microbes that inhabit many of the surfaces involved in these interactions. While most microbial studies have focused on the roles of obligate nectar yeasts in mediating pollinator behavior and fitness

Phenological distributions are characterized by their central tendency, breadth, and shape, and all three determine the extent to which interacting species overlap in time. Pollination mutualisms rely on temporal co-occurrence of pollinators and their floral resources, and although much work has bee

Our study shows that variation in individual phenology affects fecundity in three phenologically distinct montane species, and that pollen limitation may be more influential than conspecific density. Our results suggest that individual-level changes in phenology are important to consider for underst

The spatial clustering of plants occurs for a variety of reasons, including the evolution of concentrated floral displays to attract more pollination. Within clusters, traits that attract pollinators may differ from non-cluster conditions– such as increasing floral display size andscent, which can c

Mutualisms involve complex relationships between multiple types of organisms. Traditionally, mutualisms like pollination have been studied using a pairwise perspective – only focusing on two individual species or groups of species with similar functions involved in the relationship. Including third-

Anthropogenic climate change is altering environments, which in turn has the potential to influence plant traits (through phenotypic plasticity) and natural selection. The effect of changing climate on the strength and direction of selection remains unresolved. In this study we quantified the plasti

Plant-pollinator interactions rely on the exchange of nectar and pollen for pollination services. Nectar traits can be influenced by changes in abiotic factors such as water availability, and such variation may in turn influence interactions with pollinators. This experiment investigated how the nec

Pollination is a major driver of plant reproductive success and facilitates the growth of many of our major crops and is a foundation to the diversity of many ecosystems. Understanding the ecology of pollination will help preserve this important ecosystem service and predict the changes that will co

Plants are products of their environment. This is also true for flowers, which can be shaped through abiotic factors that lead to plastic response or natural selection. Both floral morphological traits and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have the potential to be impacted by environmental condition

Research on floral volatiles has grown substantially in the last 20 years, which has generated insights into their diversity and prevalence. These studies have paved the way for new research that explores the evolutionary origins and ecological consequences of different types of variation in floral

AbstractPremiseGenetic variation influences the potential for evolution to rescue populations from impacts of environmental change. Most studies of genetic variation in fitness‐related traits focus on either vegetative or floral traits, with few on floral scent. How vegetative and floral traits comp

This study analyzed how soil moisture and snow depth correlates with leaf traits of Ipomopsis aggregata across and within populations in the Crested Butte and Gothic, Colorado area. Earlier snowmelt due to global warming is lessening soil moisture in early summer in the Rocky Mountains and potential

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

Plants are able to change volatile organic compounds in response to herbivory, and these chemicals can communicate with other parts of the same plant and with other plants. Nectar robbers like Bombus mixtus introduce a new microbial community to a flower’s nectar that is different from the one intro

Climate change is causing warmer temperatures and earlier snowmelt throughout the mountains of Western North America. This study was designed to investigate how these two factors of temperature and snowmelt date influence floral traits, using Ipomopsis aggregata as a model species. While phenologica