Speaker
Description
Plant-pollinator interactions are important for maintaining diversity and ecosystem services. In recent years, however, mismatches have arisen due to phenological shifts in plants and insects because of climate change. To evaluate these interactions and their future development, it is important to consider not only the beginning and end of flowering but also the course of its intensity (i.e. via flowering curves). In this study, we used flowering intensity data weekly collected in botanical gardens by the PhenObs network to characterise the flowering curves of 215 perennial herbaceous species. We modelled flowering curves and derived four properties per species: maximum flowering intensity, flowering duration, skewness of the curves and number of flowering events. We aimed to show that these properties can be predicted by easily measurable plant traits. We used leaf trait measurements (leaf area, leaf dry matter content and specific leaf area) to derive the competitiveness and stress tolerance of a species using the global vascular plant CSR calculator StrateFy. We further extracted the temporal niche per species using the phenological data. We found that flowering curves of herbaceous species are mostly normally distributed or right-skewed. Early-flowering or competitive species invest resources in single but intensive flowering events, whereby the flowering duration is shorter in the competitive species and the curves are more left-skewed, indicating slow investment into flowering. For early-flowering species this can result in a greater risk of future mismatches, as they shift their onset of flowering more strongly and the flowering period follows an "all-in-one" strategy (i.e. single and intense flowering events). Based on the results, we suggest that characteristics of flowering curves should be considered when analysing plant-pollinator interactions. This information should be included in databases or at least predicted with the phenological niche or competitiveness of the species studied.
| Status Group | Postdoctoral Researcher |
|---|
