EEB440H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter N/A: Pollination, Directional Selection
27 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Pollination syndromes defined as a suite of floral traits, including rewards, associated with the attraction and utilization of a specific group of animals as pollinators. Pollinators in pollination syndromes are clustered into functional groups (long-tongued flies, nectar-collecting bees, etc. ), that behave in similar ways on a flower and exert similar selection pressures which generate correlations among floral traits (long and narrow corolla tubes). A plant is specialized if it is successfully pollinated by a subset of functional groups. Concluded that 75% of the flowering plants exhibit specialization onto functional groups. Complex flowers reflect selection by narrower functional groups. A species may belong in multiple functional groups. Evolutionary specialization is evolution toward pollination by fewer functional groups, which reflects evolution toward use of fewer pollinators, less disparate pollinators, or a change in the intensity of use of a subset of pre-existing pollinators. The most effective and frequent pollinator will have the largest selective force.
