A trade-off between the frequency and duration of bumblebee visits to flowers |
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Authors: | Kristina N Jones Jennifer S Reithel Rebecca E Irwin |
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Institution: | (1) Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Box 519, Crested Butte, Colorado, CO 81224, USA and Department of Biology, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 0575, USA, US |
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Abstract: | Pollinator behavior influences plant reproduction in many ways. A traditional measure of pollination, the number of visits
received, may be a poor predictor of plant reproductive success, particularly when there are trade-offs between visit quantity
and components of visit quality. For example, the duration of pollinator visits may be negatively correlated with the number
of visits received by a flower. We tested for a trade-off between the number of bumblebee visits and the duration of those
visits in an experimental population of snapdragons (Antirrhinummajus: Scrophulariaceae). The duration of a bumblebee visit to a flower increased significantly with the time interval since the
flower had last been visited. Over the lifetime of a flower the correlation between the total number and average duration
of visits received by a flower was weakly negative. However, at the whole-plant level the correlation was positive: plants
whose flowers received more visits also received visits of longer duration. Factors affecting the relationship between quantity
and duration of pollinator visits to flowers also were investigated. Two factors weakened the negative dependence of average
visit duration on number of visits received by individual snapdragon flowers: (1) the correlation between the total number
of visits to a flower and the average interval between visits was only −0.53, as visits to individual flowers were not very
evenly spaced over time, and (2) newly opened flowers received fewer and shorter visits than older flowers. Comparing whole
plants, nectar production per flower varied dramatically across individuals, a probable explanation for the positive correlation
between visit number and average duration per flower observed at the plant level. The potential for a trade-off between these
two components of pollinator service exists when visit duration depends on reward quantity; whether the trade-off is realized
will depend on variation in nectar production and on whether pollinators forage systematically.
Received: 3 October 1997 / Accepted: 16 June 1998 |
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Keywords: | Bumblebees Foraging behavior Nectar volume Pollination |
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