The Relationships Among Flowering Time, Pollinators, and Seed Set of Individuals of Four Species of Goldenrod (Solidago: Compositae)
Author: Ronald Scott Gross
Publisher:
Published: 1981
Total Pages: 446
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRead and Download eBook Full
Author: Ronald Scott Gross
Publisher:
Published: 1981
Total Pages: 446
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor:
Publisher:
Published: 1989
Total Pages: 634
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor:
Publisher:
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 636
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor:
Publisher:
Published: 1982
Total Pages: 662
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor:
Publisher:
Published: 1998
Total Pages: 812
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor:
Publisher:
Published: 1984
Total Pages: 792
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor:
Publisher:
Published: 1995
Total Pages: 682
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor:
Publisher:
Published: 1909
Total Pages: 458
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor:
Publisher:
Published: 1981
Total Pages: 552
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Gerard Smith
Publisher:
Published: 2022
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe myriad ways species interact with each other have always captivated biologists. These interactions-predation, competition, parasitism, and mutualism-are fundamental to the stability of ecological communities and drive the evolution of species they contain. Some mutualistic systems consist of mutually dependent partners that strongly influence each other's survival, while other mutualistic systems consist of many, diffuse relationships between large assemblages of partners. Critical ecological processes like pollination and seed dispersal are prime examples of such complex systems. Plant-pollinator communities are characterized by extensive pollinator sharing among plant species. My dissertation explores some of the consequences of this reliance on shared pollinators on the structure of plant-pollinator interaction networks, the foraging decisions of pollinators, and the fitness outcomes of plant species. Through several comprehensive field studies, I contribute to our understanding of mutualist interaction patterns at multiple levels of biological hierarchy: the community, species, and individuals. My first chapter examines the forces driving the change in interaction patterns of an entire plant-pollinator community and individual species throughout the flowering season. Nearly all studies of plant-pollinator interaction networks ignore potential intra-annual variation, and in doing so may be missing critical mechanisms contributing to overall community stability. I find that the overall turnover of interactions is high and driven by a process of interaction rewiring in which species frequently shuffle between available partners. Furthermore, I distinguish pollinator species whose interactions are driven by an abundance-based neutral process versus those that change their interactions beyond what is predicted by a neutral, abundance-driven null model. My second chapter uses a network-based framework to consider the fitness consequences for plants participating in a diffuse plant-pollinator network. I analyze the relationship between plant species' network metrics and pollen deposition. Empirical examples that link patterns of interactions and functional outcomes (e.g., pollination) are scarce, but necessary to establish the utility of characterizing species interaction patterns. My final chapter explores how pollinator composition, local floral neighborhoods, and timing of flowering influence the pollination outcomes of individual Oenothera fruticosa flowers. I demonstrate extensive intraspecific variation in receipt of pollen from other species ('heterospecific pollen receipt') and find that this heterospecific pollen has a negative fitness effect if present in sufficiently high amounts. Together, the chapters of my thesis provide novel insights into the consequences of pollinator sharing among co-flowering plant species.