Considering the consequences of coflowering in the face of anthropogenic change
Tia-Lynn Ashman, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Flowering plants most often exist in multispecies communities where they share pollinators. Anthropogenic activities are increasingly being recognized as forces altering the structure of plant-pollinator communities via both species gains and losses, potentially changing the functional aspects of these communities. A key ecological function that is understudied at the scale of the community is that of pollen transfer. The quantity and quality of pollen transferred within and between plant species is well recognized to determine reproduction, population abundances, and mediate selection on floral traits and mating systems, but also may also be critical to pathogen transmission. Here I describe causes and potential consequences of variation in pollen transfer among plants. I first describe how habitat fragmentation and species invasions affect pollen transfer on two time scales in a highly invaded ecosystem. And then to illustrate the wide ranging consequences changes in pollen transfer can have on plants, I describe our work on the fitness impacts of heterospecifc pollen receipt and propensity for pollen of wild plants to be a vehicle for virus transmission among plants.
The Philip C. Hamm Memorial Lectureship in the Plant Sciences was established at the University of Minnesota in 1980 by a grant from the Monsanto Agricultural Products Company in memory of the late Philip C. Hamm, an outstanding research scientist in the employ of the company. The lectureship is given annually to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the plant sciences.