Bumblebee behavior on flowers, but not initial attraction, is altered by short-term drought stress
Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
Authors
Höfer, Rebecca J.
Ayasse, Manfred
Kuppler, Jonas
Faculties
Fakultät für NaturwissenschaftenInstitutions
Institut für Evolutionsökologie und NaturschutzgenomikPublished in
Frontiers in Plant Science ; 11 (2020). - Art.-Nr. 564802. - eISSN 1664-462X
Link to original publication
https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.564802Peer review
ja
Document version
publishedVersion
Abstract
Climate change is leading to increasing drought and higher temperatures, both of
which reduce soil water levels and consequently water availability for plants. This
reduction often induces physiological stress in plants, which in turn can affect floral
development and production inducing phenotypic alterations in flowers. Because flower
visitors notice and respond to small differences in floral phenotypes, changes in trait
expression can alter trait-mediated flower visitor behavior. Temperature is also known to
affect floral scent emission and foraging behavior and, therefore, might modulate traitmediated
flower visitor behavior. However, the link between changes in flower visitor
behavior and floral traits in the context of increasing drought and temperature is still not
fully understood. In a wind-tunnel experiment, we tested the behavior of 66 Bombus
terrestris individuals in response to watered and drought-stressed Sinapis arvensis
plants and determined whether these responses were modulated by air temperature.
Further, we explored whether floral traits and drought treatment were correlated with
bumblebee behavior. The initial attractiveness of drought and watered plants did not
differ, as the time to first visit was similar. However, bumblebees visited watered plants
more often, their visitation rate to flowers was higher on watered plants, and bumblebees
stayed for longer, indicating that watered plants were more attractive for foraging.
Bumblebee behavior differed between floral trait expressions, mostly independently of
treatment, with larger inflorescences and flowers leading to a decrease in the time until
the first flower visit and an increase in the number of visits and the flower visitation
rate. Temperature modulated bumblebee activity, which was highest at 25 C; the
interaction of drought/water treatment and temperature led to higher visitation rate
on watered plants at 20 C, possibly as a result of higher nectar production. Thus,
bumblebee behavior is influenced by the watered status of plants, and bumblebees
can recognize differences in intraspecific phenotypes involving morphological traits
and scent emission, despite overall morphological traits and scent emission not being
clearly separated between treatments. Our results indicate that plants are able to
buffer floral trait expressions against short-term drought events, potentially to maintain
pollinator attraction.
Funding information
DFG [KU 3667/2-1]
Is supplemented by
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.564802/full#supplementary-materialSubject Headings
Kreuzblütler [GND]Temperatur [GND]
Temperature [LCSH]
Climate change [LCSH]
Cruciferae [LCSH]
Keywords
Soil water availability; Floral traits; Pollinator behavior; BrassicaceaeDewey Decimal Group
DDC 580 / Botanical sciencesMetadata
Show full item recordCitation example
Höfer, Rebecca J.; Ayasse, Manfred; Kuppler, Jonas (2021): Bumblebee behavior on flowers, but not initial attraction, is altered by short-term drought stress. Open Access Repositorium der Universität Ulm. http://dx.doi.org/10.18725/OPARU-34363