10.5061/DRYAD.2BVQ83BNP
Lanuza, Jose B.
0000-0002-0287-409X
University of New England
Bartomeus, Ignasi
Estación Biológica de Doñana
Ashman, Tia-Lynn
University of Pittsburgh
Rader, Romina
University of New England
Recipient and donor characteristics govern the hierarchical structure of
heterospecific pollen competition networks
Dryad
dataset
2020
FOS: Biological sciences
University of New England
https://ror.org/04r659a56
2020-09-02T00:00:00Z
2020-09-02T00:00:00Z
en
156031438 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Pollinator sharing can have negative consequences for plant fitness with
the arrival of foreign (i.e. heterospecific) pollen, yet responses are
often variable among species. Plant traits and relatedness of donor and
recipient species have been suggested to drive the variations in plant
fitness, but how they shape the structure of pollen competition networks
has been overlooked at the community level. To understand the importance
of reproductive traits and relatedness on the impacts of heterospecific
pollen we conducted a controlled glasshouse experiment with an artificial
co-flowering community. We performed 1800 reciprocal crosses by
experimentally transferring 50% and 100% foreign pollen among 10 species
belonging to three different plant families. We found a significant
reduction in seed set with 50% foreign pollen for 67% of the crosses
driven largely by recipient traits and the interaction between
recipient-donor traits under specific circumstances of trait-matching. In
general, species with shorter styles, smaller stigmas and lower
pollen:ovule ratios were more impacted by foreign pollen. These traits and
their differences among species led to a hierarchical (or transitive)
structure of pollen competition with clear winners and losers. However,
phylogenetic distance among recipient and donor species did not explain
the effects. Synthesis: Our study shows that specific traits and trait
combinations between donor and recipient species are important in
determining fitness outcomes with heterospecific pollen deposition.
Moreover, the differences in traits between species lead to a competitive
structure with clear “winners” or “losers” species. The results of this
study indicate the need to shift from pairwise to community level
interactions to elucidate the mechanisms underlying foreign pollen impacts
upon plant reproductive fitness.