St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Biology (School of)
  • Biology
  • Biology Theses
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Biology (School of)
  • Biology
  • Biology Theses
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Biology (School of)
  • Biology
  • Biology Theses
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Putting pollination quality into analyses of floral ecology: testing syndromes through pollinator performance

Thumbnail
View/Open
CarolineKingPhDThesis.pdf (13.86Mb)
Date
19/07/2012
Author
King, Caroline
Supervisor
Willmer, Pat
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Abstract
Over recent years, the extent of specialised and generalised plant-pollinator relationships, and the predictive powers of floral traits (often grouped into “pollination syndromes”) as indicators of the most effective pollinators of plant species, have been questioned. Such studies, however, have used proxies such as visitation frequency rather than direct measurements of pollinator effectiveness (PE). The main objective of this thesis was to test the predictive powers of various pollination syndromes using a specific measure of PE: single-visit stigmatic pollen deposition (SVSPD). Six different classical pollination syndromes were tested, using 13 different plant species from tropical and temperate habitats, and in the case of flowers typical of the hummingbird, hoverfly, bee, oil flower and long-tongued insect syndromes, the expected pollinators were the most effective at a single-visit scale. For generalist pollination syndrome flowers, not all observed visitors were significant pollinators, and the species studied were not as broadly generalised as their visitor assemblages would suggest. In all 13 plant species, pollinator performance could appear consistent within functional visitor groups but was variable between visitor species, and in almost all cases not all of the observed visitors were effective pollinators. The pollinator performance proxies of visit duration and feeding behaviour were neither significantly, nor consistently, related to PE. Visit duration was not an accurate indicator of pollinator performance on its own, though it was useful when combined with SVSPD to define pollinator performance at a given time scale, for example per hour, per day or per season. My findings suggest that the results of recent “pollination” networks and webs, based on visitors but not necessarily pollinators, should be treated with caution. SVSPD therefore proved to be an effective and relatively simple direct measure of PE, confirming the predictive powers of pollination syndromes, and giving further insight into the extent of specialisation and generalisation.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Collections
  • Biology Theses
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/3219

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter