Abstract Detail

Recent Topics Posters

Tai, King-Chun [1], Yang, En-Cheng [2], Wang, Chun-Neng [3].

Pollinator preference and pollinator-mediated competition united to shape the floral color assembly along altitudes in subtropical island, Taiwan.

A classic view asserts that floral color assembly is shaped by pollinator preference. However, the floral color assembly could be alternatively explained by competition for pollinators they shared. Here, we analyzed the floral color assembly from low altitude to alpine region in a subtropical island Taiwan, through the bee perceptual color space, in an effort to evaluate whether these two models could compatibly account for the floral color assembly along altitudes. We found that the color diversity of the flowering plants in middle (1500-2200 m) and high altitudes (over 2850 m) were significantly lower than that of low altitude region (below 900 m), which could be partly explained by the declined abundance of pollinators with increasing altitudes. Moreover, the chromatic signals of the alpine species most fit with the discrimination ability of bees’ vision, which suggested that bees are the most important pollinator in the subtropical alpine regions. In addition, the alpine species exhibited larger divergence of the floral colors than expected by chance, but no similar trends were observed in low and middle altitude. When considering phylogenetic structure, sympatric alpine species tend to be phylogenetically related (clustering) but floral colors of related species tend to be diverse (weak phylogenetic signal). This suggests that the over-dispersion of floral color among related alpine species is due to their competition for limited pollinators. Overall, our result demonstrated that floral color assembly in subtropical island could result from both the pollinator preference and competition for pollinators.

1 - National Taiwan University, Department of Life Science, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., , Taipei , Taiwan
2 - National Taiwan University, Department of Entomology, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd.,, Taipei, Taiwan
3 - National Taiwan University, Institute Of Ecology And Evolutionary Biology, Department Of Life Science, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road,, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan

Keywords:
Pollinator preference
Pollinator-mediated competition
floral spectral reflectance 
Floral color assembly
Bee color vision
phylogenetic signal
Phylogenetic structure.

Presentation Type: Recent Topics Poster
Session: P, Recent Topics Posters
Location: Grand Ballroom - Exhibit Hall/Mayo Civic Center
Date: Monday, July 23rd, 2018
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: PRT017
Abstract ID:1307
Candidate for Awards:None