CAREER: Testing the mismatch hypothesis for climate change-driven mutualism breakdown

在开花植物和传粉者之间的互利互动中，植物受益于花之间的花粉转移，传粉者受益于花蜜和花粉形式的营养。植物-传粉者互惠关系对自然生态系统和农业供应都是至关重要的；大约90%的开花植物和35%的作物物种依赖动物授粉。为了维持授粉互惠，植物必须在一年中传粉者觅食的同一时间开花。同样，每个伴侣的特征，如花的大小和蜜蜂的身体大小，必须匹配。然而，不断变化的环境条件，如变暖的温度，可能会导致生命事件的时间与花和传粉者的特征不匹配，有可能导致互惠共生的破裂。这项研究将测试环境变化如何影响植物和传粉者互惠关系的维持，并最终影响授粉服务。拟议的研究将有助于发展一支多元化、具有全球竞争力的STEM劳动力队伍，并通过培训加州大学河滨分校(一家拉美裔服务机构)的本科生进行科学探究，帮助改善STEM教育。该教育计划使用实验植物和传粉者社区，让数百名本科生参与到他们大学职业生涯中的多个时间点的数据收集和解释中，同时改善学习结果并推进项目研究目标。该项目将通过创建一个弹出式扩展计划来提高公众对科学的理解，该计划走遍河滨社区、社区中心和公园，以提高人们对授粉服务的重要性的认识，这些服务受到环境变化的威胁。最后，这项研究将通过预测在新的环境条件下自然和农业社区的授粉服务将如何进行，来促进公众的健康。总之，这些结果将扩大对科学界、课堂和公众对物种相互作用的影响的理解。该项目将：(1)首次通过实验测试同时变暖如何影响植物和传粉者的物候；(2)调查变暖如何影响植物和传粉者的形态、生理和行为特征；以及(3)测量变暖对植物和传粉者相互作用和适合度的多代影响。利用温控温室中的觅食场所，本土野花和孤独的蜜蜂将在开花和羽化之前同时暴露在变暖中，以测量这些相互依赖的物种在三代期间的物候和表型反应。该实验的关键方面将在田间环境中重复进行，以测试温度诱导的物候变化如何影响自然群落中的植物与蜜蜂的相互作用、特征和适合度。这个拟议的项目测试了一种假设，即环境变化将导致植物和传粉者之间的物候不匹配，并改变特征，从而威胁到生态和经济上的关键互惠关系。这项工作还将通过量化不同温度处理的表型和适应性影响，洞察植物和传粉者对环境变化的进化过程。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In the mutually beneficial interaction between flowering plants and pollinators, plants benefit from pollen transfer among flowers, and pollinators benefit from nutrition in the form of nectar and pollen. Plant-pollinator mutualisms are essential for natural ecosystems as well as agricultural supply; about 90% of flowering plants and 35% of crop species rely on animals for pollination. For pollination mutualisms to be maintained, plants must flower during the same time of year that their pollinators are foraging. Similarly, the traits of each partner, such as flower size and bee body size, must match. However, changing environmental conditions, such as warming temperatures, may cause mismatches in the timing of life events and the traits of flowers and pollinators, potentially leading to breakdown of the mutualism. This research will test how environmental change affects the maintenance of plant and pollinator mutualisms, and ultimately pollination services. The proposed research will contribute to the development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce and help to improve STEM education by training undergraduates at the University of California, Riverside, a Hispanic Serving Institution, in scientific inquiry. The educational plan uses experimental plant and pollinator communities to involve hundreds of undergraduate students in data collection and interpretation at multiple points in their college careers, improving learning outcomes and advancing project research goals at the same time. The project will improve public scientific understanding by creating a pop-up outreach program that travels to Riverside neighborhoods, community centers, and parks to raise awareness about the importance of pollination services that are threatened by environmental change. Finally, the research will advance the health of the public by informing predictions for how pollination services for natural and agricultural communities will fare under novel environmental conditions. Altogether, the results will broaden understanding of the effects of environmental change on species interactions in the scientific community, the classroom, and the public.This project will: (1) experimentally test, for the first time, how simultaneous warming affects plant and pollinator phenology; (2) investigate how warming affects plant and pollinator morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits; and (3) measure the multigenerational effects of warming on plant and pollinator interactions and fitness. Using foraging arenas in temperature-controlled greenhouses, native wildflowers and solitary bees will be concurrently exposed to warming before flowering and emergence to measure phenological and phenotypic responses of these interdependent species over three generations. Key aspects of the experiment will be replicated in a field setting to test how temperature-induced phenological changes affect plant-bee interactions, traits, and fitness in natural communities. The proposed project tests the hypothesis that environmental change will generate phenological mismatches between plants and pollinators and alter traits, thereby threatening an ecologically and economically critical mutualism. The work will also provide insight into the evolutionary processes shaping plant and pollinator responses to environmental change by quantifying the phenotypic and fitness effects of different temperature treatments.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.