[en] Body size is a trait that can affect plant–pollinator interaction efficiency and plant reproductive success. We explored the impact of intraspecific size shifts on the interactions between pollinators and flowering plants under controlled conditions. We considered two development conditions leading to the production of large and small individual flowers of Borago officinalis and Echium plantagineum. We also used the natural variability of worker size within bumblebee colonies to isolate small and large workers. We performed a fully crossed experiment with the two flower sizes of each plant species and the two sizes of bumblebee workers. Our results show that the size of both partners did not affect bee foraging behavior in most of the evaluated parameters and both bee sizes were equally efficient in depositing pollen. Significant differences were found only in pollen deposition across the life of a flower in small flowers of B. officinalis, with the greatest quantity of pollen deposited by small bees. We did not find a relationship between pollinator size and plant fitness. Our results suggest that generalist plant–pollinator interactions may be resilient to future potential mismatches in the size of the partners but remain to be tested if they are still resilient under the new environmental conditions resulting from global changes.
Disciplines :
Zoology
Author, co-author :
Reverte saiz, Sara ; Université de Mons - UMONS > Faculté des Science > Service de Zoologie
Gérard, Maxence ; INSECT Lab, Division of Functional Morphology, Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Bodson, Maxime ; Université de Mons - UMONS > Faculté des Sciences > Service de la Cellule de pédagogie Facultaire des Sciences
Descamps, Charlotte; Earth and Life Institute – Agronomy, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Gosselin, Matthias; Laboratory of Entomology, Haute École Provinciale de Hainaut – Condorcet, Ath, Belgium
Jacquemart, Anne-Laure; Earth and Life Institute – Agronomy, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
FWO - Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vlaanderen [BE] F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]
Funding number :
3094785
Funding text :
We are very grateful to Morgan Fays and the staff of the “Haute École Provinciale de Hainaut – Condorcet (HEPH-Condorcet)” and their associated research Centre CARAH in Ath (Belgium) for their joint efforts to conduct the experiment in their greenhouse. We want to thank D. Evrard for his help in the preparation of the experiment, R. Cejas and D. Cejas for their help during the experiment, R. Cejas for the drawings of the figures, and T. J. Wood for language revision of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) and the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO) under EOS Project CLIPS (number 3094785).We are very grateful to Morgan Fays and the staff of the “Haute École Provinciale de Hainaut – Condorcet (HEPH‐Condorcet)” and their associated research Centre CARAH in Ath (Belgium) for their joint efforts to conduct the experiment in their greenhouse. We want to thank D. Evrard for his help in the preparation of the experiment, R. Cejas and D. Cejas for their help during the experiment, R. Cejas for the drawings of the figures, and T. J. Wood for language revision of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) and the Research Foundation‐Flanders (FWO) under EOS Project CLIPS (number 3094785).
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