Life Sciences Commons^™

Fire And Ungulate Herbivory Differentially Affect The Sexual Reproduction Of Generalist And Specialist Pollinated Plants, Andrew Hollis Lybbert

Theses and Dissertations

Currently the size and frequency of wildfires are increasing at a global scale, including arid ecosystems that exhibit great sensitivity to disturbance. Fire effects on plant pollination and reproductive success in deserts are largely unknown. Plant dependence on animal pollinators for reproduction can increase the risk of reproductive failure if pollination services are hindered or lost. Species that depend on few taxonomically related pollinator species are expected to be most negatively affected by disturbances that disrupt pollination interactions. To assess fire and isolation effects on reproductive success in desert plant communities, and how wildfire influences the pollination success of generalist …

Review: Role Of Syrphids (Diptera: Syrphidae) As Biotic Agents And Pollinators In Pakistan, Mohammad Irshad

Journal of Bioresource Management

The agriculture sector is important in the overall economy of Pakistan. There are many limiting factors in crop production. The two important factors are pest damage and pollination in addition to many others. Pest damage remained a serious problem since the dawn of human civilization. With the advancement of knowledge regarding safety of environment, pests are now tackled through Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques. In IPM, biological control through use of natural enemies is quite significant and the favored approach. Pollination is an essential ecosystem service. Effective pollination results in increased crop production, quality improvement and more seed production. One …

Minimal Effects Of An Invasive Flowering Shrub On The Pollinator Community Of Native Forbs, Y Anny Chung, Laura A. Burkle, Tiffany M. Knight

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

Biological invasions can strongly influence species interactions such as pollination. Most of the documented effects of exotic plant species on plant-pollinator interactions have been observational studies using single pairs of native and exotic plants, and have focused on dominant exotic plant species. We know little about how exotic plants alter interactions in entire communities of plants and pollinators, especially at low to medium invader densities. In this study, we began to address these gaps by experimentally removing the flowers of a showy invasive shrub, Rosa multiflora, and evaluating its effects on the frequency, richness, and composition of bee visitors to …

Application Of Spatial Modeling Tools To Predict Native Bee Abundance In Maine's Lowbush Blueberries, Shannon J. Chapin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Non-native honeybees historically have been used to pollinate many crops throughout the United States, however, recent population declines have revealed the need for a more sustainable pollination plan. Native bees are a natural resource that can play an important role in pollination. I used spatial modeling tools to evaluate relationships between landscape factors and native bee abundance, with a focus on the wild native bees that pollinate Maine’s lowbush blueberries. I applied the InVEST Crop Pollination ecosystem spatial modeling tool, which predicts pollinator abundance based on available floral resources and nesting habitat, to the Downeast Maine region. The InVEST model …

Competition For Pollination Between An Invasive Species (Purple Loosestrife) And A Native Congener, Beverly J. Brown, Randall J. Mitchell, Shirley A. Graham

Randall J. Mitchell

Invasive species are frequently regarded as Superlative competitors that can vegetatively crowd Out natives, but little is known about whether invasives call compete for pollination services with native plants. We hypothesized that, when the showy invasive species Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) was present, pollinator visitation and seed set would be reduced in a native congener, L. alatum (winged loosestrife). To test this hypothesis, we constructed mixed and monospecific plots of the two species. Over two years of study, we found that L. salicaria significantly reduced both pollinator visitation and seed set in L. alatum. Furthermore, pollinators moved frequently between the …

Sexual Dimorphism Of Staminate- And Pistillate-Phase Flowers Of Saponaria Officinalis (Bouncing Bet) Affects Pollinator Behavior And Seed Set, Sandra L. Davis, Dana A. Dudle, Jenna R. Nawrocki, Leah M. Freestone, Peter Konieczny, Michael B. Tobin, Michael M. Britton

Biology Faculty publications

The sequential separation of male and female function in flowers of dichogamous species allows for the evolution of differing morphologies that maximize fitness through seed siring and seed set. We examined staminate- and pistillate-phase flowers of protandrous Saponaria officinalis for dimorphism in floral traits and their effects on pollinator attraction and seed set. Pistillate-phase flowers have larger petals, greater mass, and are pinker in color, but due to a shape change, pistillate-phase flowers have smaller corolla diameters than staminate-phase flowers. There was no difference in nectar volume or sugar content one day after anthesis, and minimal evidence for UV nectar …

Humming Birds: Pollination Facts And Fancy, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), the 2014 VNPS Wildflower of the Year, is a classic example of a hummingbird-pollinated flower: bright red petals, often with contrasting yellow tones in the corolla throat, provide visual attraction, drawing hummingbirds to the flowers, where they are rewarded with a rich supply of nectar. Whereas hummingbirds have good color vision, they have a poor sense of smell. So it is not surprising that coral honeysuckle flowers are nearly scentless, at least to the human nose; even modern analytical instruments detect only traces of volatile molecules emanating from them. And open coral honeysuckle flowers, …

2013 Wild Blueberry Project Reports, Vivian Wu, Dorothy J. Klimis-Zacas, Frank A. Drummond, Judith A. Collins, Alex Bajcz, Lee Beers, Brianne Looze, Cyndy Loftin, Aaron Hoshide, Sara Bushmann, Kalyn Bickerman, Alison Dibble, Lois Berg Stack, Gabriel Al-Najjar, Elissa Ballman, Seanna L. Annis, Caleb Slemmons, David E. Yarborough, Jennifer L. D'Appollonio, Mary Ellen Camire, Jennifer R. Chadbourne, Michael Dougherty, Katherine Davis-Dentici, Edward Bernard, Tamara Levitsky, Tsutomu Ohno, Erika Lyon, Ellen Mallory, Katie Mcphee, Hannah Griffin, Marianne Sarrantonio

Wild Blueberry Research Reports

The 2013 edition of the Wild Blueberry Project Reports was prepared for the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine and the Wild Blueberry Advisory Committee by researchers at the University of Maine, Orono. Projects in this report include:

1. Development of effective intervention measures to maintain and improve food safety for wild blueberries

2. Do wild blueberries alleviate risk factors related to the Metabolic Syndrome?

3. Wild Blueberry consumption and exercise-induced Oxidative Stress: Inflammatory Response and DNA damage

4. Control tactics for blueberry pest insects, 2013

5. Pesticide residues on wild blueberry, 2013

6. Biology of pest insects and IPM, 2013 …

Generalist And Specialist Pollination Syndromes: When Are They Favoured? A Theoretical Approach To Predict The Conditions Under Which A Generalist Or Specialist Pollination Syndrome Is Favoured., Tyler L. Poppenwimer

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Wild Bees Preferentially Visit Rudbeckia Flower Heads With Exaggerated Ultraviolet Absorbing Floral Guides, Lisa Horth, Laura Campbell, Rebecca Bray

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Here, we report on the results of an experimental study that assessed the visitation frequency of wild bees to conspecific flowers with different sized floral guides. UV absorbent floral guides are ubiquitous in Angiosperms, yet surprisingly little is known about conspecific variation in these guides and very few studies have evaluated pollinator response to UV guide manipulation. This is true despite our rich understanding about learning and color preferences in bees. Historical dogma indicates that flower color serves as an important long-range visual signal allowing pollinators to detect the flowers, while floral guides function as close-range signals that direct pollinators …

Flower Closure In The Field Bindweed (Convolvulus Arvensis): A Field Test Of The Pollination Hypothesis, Pavol Prokop, Dominika Neupauerova

Turkish Journal of Botany

Although the behavioral plasticity of flower traits has received considerable attention, its adaptive value is not thoroughly understood. We experimentally examined flower opening/closure in field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), a species with short flower persistence (1 day) in which adaptive responses to pollination were not previously expected. In line with the pollination hypothesis we suggested that flower exposure in this species should respond to pollination. More specifically, we predicted that flower closure in the pollinated flowers would be quicker than that in unpollinated flowers. As predicted, the unpollinated flowers were open for a longer time than the pollinated flowers. There was …