Differences in Nectar Traits between Ornithophilous and Entomophilous Plants on Mount Cameroon

Autor: Štěpán Janeček, Kryštof Chmel, Francis Luma Ewome, Karolína Hrubá, Yannick Klomberg, Ishmeal N. Kobe, Raissa Dywou Kouede, Jan E. J. Mertens, Marcus Mokake Njie, Robert Tropek
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Plants, Vol 10, Iss 6, p 1161 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2223-7747
DOI: 10.3390/plants10061161
Popis: Despite a growing number of studies, the role of pollinators as a selection agent for nectar traits remains unclear. Moreover, the lack of data from some biogeographic regions prohibits us from determining their general importance and global patterns. We analyzed nectar carbohydrate traits and determined the main pollinators of 66 plant species in the tropical forests of Mount Cameroon (tropical West Africa). The measured nectar traits included total sugar amounts and proportions of sucrose and hexoses (i.e., glucose and fructose). We report the nectar properties for plants visited by five pollinator groups (bees, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, and specialized birds). Our results indicate that, rather than specific evolution in each of the five plant groups, there was a unique nectar-trait evolution in plants pollinated by specialized birds. The ornithophilous plants had a higher proportion of sucrose and produced larger sugar amounts than the plants pollinated by insects. We also demonstrated a significant phylogenetic signal in the nectar properties in some lineages of the studied plants.
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