Environmental Program, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA.
Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, IL 60647, USA.
Biol Lett. 2022 Mar;18(3):20220016. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2022.0016. Epub 2022 Mar 2.
Plants have evolved a variety of approaches to attract pollinators, including enriching their nectar with essential nutrients. Because sodium is an essential nutrient for pollinators, and sodium concentration in nectar can vary both within and among species, we explored whether experimentally enriching floral nectar with sodium in five plant species would influence pollinator visitation and diversity. We found that the number of visits by pollinators increased on plants with sodium-enriched nectar, regardless of plant species, relative to plants receiving control nectar. Similarly, the number of species visiting plants with sodium-enriched nectar was twice that of controls. Our findings suggest that sodium in floral nectar may play an important but unappreciated role in the ecology and evolution of plant-pollinator mutualisms.
植物已经进化出多种方法来吸引传粉者，包括用必需营养物质来丰富花蜜。因为钠是传粉者的必需营养物质，而且花蜜中的钠浓度在物种内和物种间都有差异，所以我们探索了在五种植物物种中用钠来人为丰富花的花蜜是否会影响传粉者的访问和多样性。我们发现，无论植物种类如何，与接受对照花蜜的植物相比，用富含钠的花蜜的植物上的传粉者访问次数增加了。同样，用富含钠的花蜜的植物上的访问物种数量是对照的两倍。我们的研究结果表明，花的花蜜中的钠可能在植物-传粉者共生关系的生态和进化中起着重要但未被认识到的作用。
