Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242, USA.
Oecologia. 2020 Jun;193(2):511-522. doi: 10.1007/s00442-020-04674-0. Epub 2020 Jun 3.
Plant-pollinator interactions are partially driven by the expression of plant traits that signal and attract bees to the nutritional resources within flowers. Although multiple physical and chemical floral traits are known to influence the visitation patterns of bees, how distinct bee groups vary in their responses to floral traits has yet to be elucidated. In this study, we used a common garden experiment to test for morphological floral traits associated with pollen quantity at the plant species level, and examined how the visitation patterns of taxonomically and functionally distinct bee groups are related to flower trait characteristics of 39 wildflower species. We also determined how floral traits influence the structure of wild bee communities visiting plants and whether this varies among geographic localities. Our results suggest that floral area is the primary morphological floral trait related to bee visitation of several distinct bee groups, but that wild bee families and functionally distinct bee groups have unique responses to floral trait expression. The composition of the wild bee communities visiting different plants was most strongly associated with variability in floral area, flower height, and the quantity of pollen retained in flowers. Our results inform wildflower habitat management for bees by demonstrating that the visitation patterns of distinct bee taxa can be predicted by floral traits, and highlight that variability in these traits should be considered when selecting plants to support pollinators.
植物与传粉者的相互作用部分是由植物特征的表达驱动的，这些特征可以向蜜蜂发出信号并吸引它们来获取花朵内的营养资源。尽管已知多种物理和化学的花部特征会影响蜜蜂的访问模式，但不同的蜜蜂群体在对花部特征的反应上有何差异仍有待阐明。在这项研究中，我们使用了一个公共花园实验来测试与植物物种水平上花粉数量相关的形态花部特征，并研究了分类学和功能上不同的蜜蜂群体的访问模式与 39 种野花的花部特征之间的关系。我们还确定了花部特征如何影响访问植物的野生蜜蜂群落的结构，以及这种影响是否因地理位置而异。我们的研究结果表明，花部面积是与几个不同的蜜蜂群体的蜜蜂访问最相关的主要形态花部特征，但野生蜜蜂科和功能上不同的蜜蜂群体对花部特征表达有独特的反应。访问不同植物的野生蜜蜂群落的组成与花部面积、花高和花朵中保留的花粉数量的可变性最密切相关。我们的研究结果为蜜蜂的野花栖息地管理提供了信息，表明不同的蜜蜂分类群的访问模式可以通过花部特征来预测，并强调在选择支持传粉者的植物时，应考虑这些特征的可变性。
