Li, D. orcid.org/0000-0003-0471-7917, Clements, C.F. and Memmott, J. (2024) Isolation limits spring pollination in a UK fragmented landscape. PLoS ONE, 19 (9). e0310679. ISSN 1932-6203
Abstract
Animal-mediated pollination determines the reproductive success of most flowering plants; this process however can be disrupted by environmental degradation, with habitat loss and fragmentation highlighted as a top driver of pollination deficits. Despite being a pervasive stressor worldwide, we still have rather limited empirical evidence on its effects on pollination services, especially for early spring pollination syndromes. We investigate this using a potted plant phytometry experiment in which we placed English Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)—a species largely pollinated in spring—into a fragmented woodland habitat. We selected 51 woodland patches which varied in both size and distance from each other and placed 153 pots of bluebell plants in the patches for c.4 weeks to measure pollination. The woodlands were located in a matrix of grassland, the latter being of low plant species richness and overall in the patches, woodland plants showed a positive species-area relationship. We collected traits on bluebell reproduction, these included the number, size, quality of seeds, the number of seed capsules and the number of flowers that failed to set any seeds. We found that seed traits responded differently to patch area and isolation. Patch isolation negatively affected the number of seeds and capsules, whilst it did not affect the size and quality of seeds. Patch area had no effect on any traits, suggesting that patch area might not necessarily be a factor that affects pollination in this species. The number of flowers that failed to set seed was unaffected by either patch area or isolation. Our study suggests that woodland fragmentation impacts the pollination of understory spring flowering plants. Our results highlight the use of multiple traits of phytometer plants to evaluate pollination and the importance of connectivity in maintaining pollination services in small-fragmented landscapes.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 Li et al. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 14 Oct 2024 10:09 |
Last Modified: | 14 Oct 2024 10:09 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Public Library of Science |
Identification Number: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0310679 |
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Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:218305 |