Quantifying the Role of Pollinator Mediated Selection in the Evolution of Pollination Syndromes in Silene (Caryophyllaceae)

该项目将量化诸如形状、颜色、气味、花卉展示和花蜜奖励等花卉特征是否反映了植物对特定动物传粉者的适应性反应。将调查三种不同花色的石竹科植物，先验似乎适应不同类型的动物传粉者，包括蜜蜂、飞蛾和蜂鸟。通过观察和操作，我们将确定不同的传粉者对每个物种的繁殖成功有多重要，以及是否有一组特定的传粉者实际上选择了目前在这三个物种中发现的一系列花卉特征。该项目的目标是了解传粉者在促进植物界的花卉多样性方面所起的作用。例如，蜂鸟拜访的花通常是红色的，无味的，白天开花，而飞蛾授粉的花通常是白色的，芳香浓郁，晚上开放。因此，我们希望量化蜂鸟和飞蛾是否偏爱那些更能表达与蜂鸟或飞蛾授粉相关的特征的植物，以及这是否会导致这些植物获得更大的繁殖成功。无论我们发现一个物种是由多种类型的动物授粉，还是只由特定的传粉者授粉，都将具有保护意义。在前一种情况下，动物的丧失可能会降低植物繁殖的成功率。然而，在后一种情况下，特定传粉者的丧失会导致一种植物的丧失。

This project will quantify whether flower traits such as shape, color, scent, floral display, and nectar rewards reflects an adaptive response by plants to specific animals pollinators. Three Silene species (carnation family) will be investigated that differ in flower traits and a priori appear to be adapted to different types of animal pollinators, including bees, moths and hummingbirds. Through observations and manipulations we will determine how important different pollinators are to the reproductive success of each species and whether a particular group of pollinators actually selects for the present suite of floral traits found in each of the three species.The goal of the project is to understand the role of pollinators in promoting floral diversity in the plant kingdom. For example, flowers visited by hummingbirds are generally red, scentless and flower during the day, while moth pollinated flowers are often white, richly fragrant and open at night. Thus we hope to quantify whether hummingbirds and moths favor plants that have greater expression of traits associated with either hummingbird or moth pollination and whether this leads to greater reproductive success of the plants. Whether we find that a species is successfully pollinated by many types of animals or only by specific pollinators will have conservation implications. In the former scenario, the loss of animals may decrease plant reproductive success. However, in the later case, the loss of specific pollinators my result in the loss of a plant species.