Dissertation Research: The Pollination Ecology of Calyptrogyne sarapiquensis

同一物种的植物和动物之间的花的展示是不同的，这种差异会影响繁殖的成功。展示物在吸引传粉者的能力和对破坏性食花动物的吸引力方面可能各不相同。我将研究花展示的变化如何影响传粉者和采花动物Calyptorgyne sarapiquensis的访问，Calyptorgyne sarapiquensis是一种雨林林下棕榈。虽然许多花可能已经进化到最大化长期繁殖的成功，但植物很少从所有的雌花中结果。坐果可能受到许多因素的影响，包括缺乏授粉、花朵被捕食和缺乏果实发育资源。在第一个田间季节，我将检查这些因素的自然变化水平，并将它们与田间结实量联系起来。这些相关数据将用于设计第二个野外季节的操作实验。这些试验将考虑决定坐果的因素之间的相互作用。植物也通过传播花粉来实现繁殖的成功。花粉移动的距离影响着植物生殖生态的关键要素，如潜在配偶的数量、雌性花粉的可用性、交配种群的规模及其覆盖的面积。我将通过追踪花粉类似物的运动来研究花粉流。

Floral display can vary between plants and animals of the same species, and this variation can affect reproductive success. Displays may vary in their capacity to attract pollinators, and in their attraction to destructive florivores. I will examine how the variation in floral display affects visitation by pollinators and florivores of Calyptorgyne sarapiquensis, a rain forest understory palm. Although a number of flowers may well have evolved to maximize long-term reproductive success, plants rarely set fruit from all of their female flowers. Fruit set may be reduced by many factors, including lack of pollination, predation of flowers, and lack of resources to develop fruit. In the first field season I will examine the natural levels of variation in these factors and relate them to amount of fruit set in the field. These correlative data will be used to design manipulative experiments for the second field season. These experiments will consider the interaction of factors determining fruit set. Plants also achieve reproductive success by dispersing their pollen. The distance over which pollen is moved influences key elements of the plant's reproductive ecology, such as the number of prospective mates, the availability of pollen for females, the size of the mating population and the area it covers. I will examine pollen flow by tracing the movement of a pollen analog.