Seed predators can increase nectar volumes in an alpine daisy: but do the insects benefit?
Seed predators can increase nectar volumes in an alpine daisy: but do the insects benefit?
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DOI：
10.1007/s11258-016-0646-1
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发表时间：
2016-08
期刊：
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Junpeng Mu;Yan Chen;Yu-lian Yang;Ronghua Fu;Hui Wang;S. Compton
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Junpeng Mu;Yan Chen;Yu-lian Yang;Ronghua Fu;Hui Wang;S. Compton
传粉者和传播前的种子捕食者可以通过它们共享的植物相互作用。我们研究了传播前的种子捕食者如何修改花蜜的质量和数量，从而影响传粉者的行为。在西藏的高山草甸工作，我们假设，增加水平的传播前种子捕食的幼虫实蝇将减少花蜜的数量和质量inSaussurea nigrescens（菊科），这将使花吸引力降低蜜蜂，最频繁的花卉游客。我们的田间实验表明，小花花蜜体积对蝇幼虫的高密度和低密度有不同的反应，当有一只幼虫存在时，小花花蜜体积显着增加，但当头状花序中存在两个或更多幼虫时，小花花蜜体积就会减少。对苍蝇幼虫的实验操作也得到了同样的结果。单个幼虫产生的花蜜量的增加可能对这些昆虫在传粉者优先访问的地方是有益的。能产生更多花蜜的黑色植物在我们的研究地点，蜜蜂是主要的传粉者，访问率不受花蜜量变化的影响，但它们被引入该地区，本地传粉者可能更具选择性。
Pollinators and pre-dispersal seed predators can interact via the plants they share. We examined how pre-dispersal seed predators modify nectar quality and quantity and thereby influence pollinator behaviour. Working in a Tibetan alpine meadow, we hypothesized that increasing levels of pre-dispersal seed predation by larvae of tephritid flies would reduce nectar quantity and quality inSaussurea nigrescens(Asteraceae), and that this would make the flowers less attractive to honeybees, the most frequent floral visitors. Our field experiments showed that floret nectar volumes responded differently to high and low densities of fly larvae, with significant increases when there was one larva present, but decreases when two or more larvae were present in a capitulum. Experimental manipulations of fly larvae yielded the same result. The increases in nectar volume generated by a single larva are likely to be beneficial for these insects in locations where pollinators preferentially visit thoseS. nigrescensthat produce more nectar. At our study sites, honeybees were the main pollinators and visitation rates were unaffected by the changes in nectar volumes, but they are introduced to the area, and native pollinators may be more selective.