Plant family trees reveal ancient climate's fingerprint on pollinators
Leclère T, Bartish I, Gerhold P, Prinzing A.
Pollinators
The bumblebees buzzing your garden squash and the moths visiting your evening primrose evolved their partnerships with flowers during very different ancient climates, which helps explain why some plants bloom in cool spring weather while others wait for summer heat.
Researchers built a giant family tree for over a thousand native Dutch plants and checked when different branches of that tree burst into new species. Turns out plants pollinated by wind, flies, and beetles mostly diversified during Earth's cold periods, while moth-pollinated plants took off during warm ancient climates. The pattern still shows up today: those old climate preferences match the actual temperatures each plant blooms in right now.
Key Findings
The phylogeny covered 1,178 native Dutch angiosperms at 93% resolution, split into eight pollination syndromes.
Lineage diversification (measured as stELDs) peaked during the coldest paleoclimate intervals and dipped during intermediate-temperature intervals; wind pollination showed the strongest cold-linked signal.
Among insect-pollinated groups, moth-pollination tracked the warmest ancient temperatures while bumblebee and wasp pollination tracked intermediate temperatures, and fly, lepidoptera, and beetle pollination tracked the coldest temperatures; these ancient patterns correlated with present-day seasonal flowering temperatures.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists traced the family trees of nearly 1,200 wild plant species in the Netherlands and found that plants pollinated by different creatures (wind, bees, moths, flies) each boomed at different points in Earth's climate history, mostly during cold spells rather than mild ones.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Signals of Paleotemperature in the Age Structure and Seasonal Distribution of Pollination Syndromes Across a Temperate Region.
Across the planet, angiosperm diversification has been shaped by palaeoclimates and biotic interactions, particularly with pollinators, leaving signatures in the angiosperm age structure. Regional ...
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