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Variation in pollinator assemblages in a fragmented landscape and its effects on reproductive stages of a self-incompatible treelet, Psychotria suterella (Rubiaceae)

  • Plant Animal Interactions
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Abstract

Few studies of plant–pollinator interactions in fragmented landscapes evaluate the consequences of floral visitor variation on multiple stages of plant reproduction. Given that fragmentation potentially has positive or negative effects on different organisms, and that self-incompatible plant species depend on pollinators for sexual reproduction, differences in floral visitor assemblages may affect certain plant reproductive stages. We evaluated how pollinator assemblage, availability of floral resources, pollination, reproductive output, and seed and seedling performance of Psychotria suterella Muell. Arg. varied among three fragmentation categories: non-fragmented habitats, fragments connected by corridors, and isolated fragments. Richness and frequency of floral visitors were greater in fragments than in non-fragmented sites, resulting mainly from the addition of species typically found in disturbed areas. Although 24 species visited Psychotria suterella flowers, bumblebees were considered the most important pollinators, because they showed the highest frequency of visits and were present in eight out of ten sites. Additionally, the number of pollen tubes per flower per visit was lower in areas without bumblebees. The increased visitation in fragments seemed to enhance pollination slightly. However, fruit and seed output, germination, and seed and seedling mass were similar in non-fragmented sites, connected sites, and isolated fragments. Our results suggested that, even for a self-incompatible species, responses to habitat fragmentation at different stages of plant reproduction might be decoupled from the responses observed in floral visitors, if fruit set is not pollen limited. If all reproductive stages were considered, variation on the small scale was more important than the variation explained by fragmentation category. In spite of its self-incompatible breeding system, this plant–pollinator system showed resilience to habitat fragmentation, mainly as a result of high availability of potential mates to P. suterella individuals, absence of pollen limitation, and the presence of bumblebees (Bombus spp.) throughout this highly connected landscape.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to several people who contributed to this study. M.A. Aizen provided valuable support in our first steps in the course of fragmentation studies. We would also like to thank our lab mates, M.R. Darrigo and S. Del Carlo, as well as M. Perine, P.C. Fernandes and P.G.M. Cesário, who worked very hard with us during data collection in the field or in the laboratory; E.L. Catharino and G.A.D.C. Franco for P. suterella identification; C. Penz and K.S. Brown Jr. for butterfly identification, and G.A.R. Melo and I.A. Santos for bee identification. In addition, we thank J. R Nali from SABESP and the owners of forest fragments for permission to develop this study; N.L. Menezes and V. Angyalossy (Department of Botany, IB–USP) for logistic support in the plant anatomy laboratory; J.P. Metzger, P. Feinsinger and S. Del Carlo for their review of the manuscript; J.P. Metzger for giving us the opportunity to work on the project “Biodiversity conservation in fragmented landscapes in the Atlantic Plateau of São Paulo”; M.C. Ribeiro for his help with maps and GIS, and C.C. Ferraz, R. Khorsand and B.V. Young for their kind and dedicated help with the English language. We also want to thank Judith Bronstein and two anonymous sources who provided suggestions to improve this manuscript. Financial support was provided by FAPESP 99/12704-3 and 99/05123-4. All experiments complied with the current Brazilian laws.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Luciano E. Lopes

  2. Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, travessa 14, 321, 05508-900, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Silvana Buzato

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  1. Luciano E. Lopes
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  2. Silvana Buzato
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Correspondence to Silvana Buzato.

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Communicated by Judith Bronstein.

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Lopes, L.E., Buzato, S. Variation in pollinator assemblages in a fragmented landscape and its effects on reproductive stages of a self-incompatible treelet, Psychotria suterella (Rubiaceae). Oecologia 154, 305–314 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0830-z

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