Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
PeerJ. 2022 Apr 18;10:e13009. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13009. eCollection 2022.
Changes in environmental conditions are likely to have a complex effect on the growth of plants, their phenology, plant-pollinator interactions, and reproductive success. The current world is facing an ongoing climate change along with other human-induced environmental changes. Most research has focused on the impact of increasing temperature as a major driving force for climate change, but other factors may have important impacts on plant traits and pollination too and these effects may vary from season to season. In addition, it is likely that the effects of multiple environmental factors, such as increasing temperature, water availability, and nitrogen enrichment are not independent. Therefore, we tested the impact of two key factors-water, and nitrogen supply-on plant traits, pollination, and seed production in (Brassicaceae) in three seasons defined as three temperature conditions with two levels of water and nitrogen supply in a factorial design. We collected data on multiple vegetative and floral traits and assessed the response of pollinators in the field. Additionally, we evaluated the effect of growing conditions on seed set in plants exposed to pollinators and in hand-pollinated plants. Our results show that water stress impaired vegetative growth, decreased flower production, and reduced visitation by pollinators and seed set, while high amount of nitrogen increased nectar production under low water availability in plants grown in the spring. Temperature modulated the effect of water and nitrogen availability on vegetative and floral traits and strongly affected flowering phenology and flower production. We demonstrated that changes in water and nitrogen availability alter plant vegetative and floral traits, which impacts flower visitation and consequently plant reproduction. We conclude that ongoing environmental changes such as increasing temperature, altered precipitation regimes and nitrogen enrichment may thus affect plant-pollinator interactions with negative consequences for the reproduction of wild plants and insect-pollinated crops.
环境条件的变化可能会对植物的生长、物候、植物-传粉者相互作用和繁殖成功产生复杂的影响。当前，世界正面临着持续的气候变化以及其他人为引起的环境变化。大多数研究集中在作为气候变化主要驱动力的温度升高的影响上，但其他因素也可能对植物特征和传粉产生重要影响，而且这些影响可能因季节而异。此外，增加的温度、水分可用性和氮素富集等多种环境因素的影响可能并非相互独立。因此，我们在三个季节中（十字花科）测试了两个关键因素——水和氮供应对植物特征、传粉和种子生产的影响，这三个季节定义为三种温度条件，两种水平的水和氮供应采用析因设计。我们收集了多个营养和生殖特征的数据，并在野外评估了传粉者的反应。此外，我们评估了在有传粉者和人工授粉的植物中生长条件对种子结实的影响。研究结果表明，水分胁迫会损害营养生长，减少花的产生，降低传粉者的访问率和种子结实率，而在春季生长的植物中，高氮水平会在低水分可用性下增加花蜜产量。温度调节了水和氮供应对营养和生殖特征的影响，并强烈影响开花物候和花的产生。我们证明，水和氮供应的变化改变了植物的营养和生殖特征，这影响了花的访问，进而影响了植物的繁殖。我们得出结论，持续的环境变化，如温度升高、降水模式改变和氮素富集，可能会影响植物-传粉者的相互作用，对野生植物和虫媒授粉作物的繁殖产生负面影响。
