Ecological change may be a common initiator of evolutionary pollinator shifts.
Dellinger AS.
Pollinators
Every time a gardener notices that bees have stopped visiting a plant that once buzzed with them, they're witnessing the kind of ecological pressure that — over thousands of generations — reshapes flowers into entirely new forms.
Flowering plants have evolved an astonishing variety of flower shapes and colors, and a big reason is that they've repeatedly switched which type of animal — bee, butterfly, hummingbird, moth — pollinates them. A researcher argues that what triggers these switches is usually some change in the environment, like a new climate or a shift in which animals live nearby, that makes the old pollinator less effective. To study this properly, the researcher calls for combining big-picture evolutionary comparisons with on-the-ground ecological observations.
Key Findings
Evolutionary pollinator shifts are recognized as a major driver of flowering plant diversity, but the mechanisms that initiate these shifts have been largely unstudied.
The author formally defines 'ecological change' as any abiotic or biotic shift — at any scale — that significantly reduces how effectively a plant's current pollinator does its job.
Macroevolutionary comparisons of abiotic (climate, geography) change across many independent pollinator-shift events are proposed as the most tractable first test of this hypothesis.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A researcher proposes that environmental disruptions — like climate shifts or habitat changes — are likely what kick-start evolutionary changes in which pollinators visit a flower, helping explain the enormous diversity of flowering plants we see today.
Abstract Preview
Although evolutionary pollinator shifts are accepted as major sources of floral and species diversity in angiosperms, the mechanisms triggering pollinator shifts remain largely unexplored. In 1970,...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Was this useful?
Urban Tree Canopy Reduces Heat-Related Mortality by 39% in European Cities
Trees in your local park or street aren't just pretty — they are literally keeping people alive during heatwaves, and planting even a modest number of the ri...