Dissertation Research: Shared pollinators affect flowering plant coexistence

如果没有蜜蜂、蝙蝠和蝴蝶等传粉者，世界上大多数开花植物都将消失。由于传粉者的重要性，确保它们的健康对于保护生物多样性和促进全球农业安全至关重要。作为传粉者，一些本地蜜蜂可以通过限制访问特定物种的花来表现出强烈的忠诚度，而其他蜜蜂可能不会如此忠诚，访问许多不同类型的花。理论上讲，有忠实传粉者的植物应该会结出更多的果实和种子，因为传粉者在造访时只会提供合适的花粉类型。这项研究的目的是了解本地蜜蜂对某些植物表现出忠诚的程度。这项研究还探索了亲缘关系密切的植物之间共享传粉者可能会如何影响这些植物产生多少种子。如果一些植物在共享传粉者时表现得比其他植物差，传粉者忠诚度的差异可能会影响这些植物变得常见或稀有的程度。这项研究的结果对于理解传粉者在维持健康和多样化的农业和自然植物群落中所起的作用非常重要。这项研究有助于培养研究生，为高中生物课开发实验室和实地项目，并提供机会让女性和未被充分代表的学生参与和鼓励STEM科学。共存理论阐述了如何通过将物种相互作用框定为物种内部和物种之间的竞争平衡来维持生物群落中的物种丰富度。这项研究利用这一理论来研究传粉者共享是否会影响克拉克亚属四种共生植物的共存动态。确定共享传粉者对开花植物的共生是有害的还是有利的，取决于对本地蜜蜂的花偏好和稳定性的了解，这些蜜蜂专门从事花卉及其提供的花粉的数量。在克拉克亚传粉者身上发现的花粉的多样性和数量将通过遗传鉴定技术(QPCR)进行测量。这些测量将与对每个植物物种竞争能力的估计结合使用，以确定共享传粉者是否会改变植物的适应性，以及模式是否显示出负的频率依赖性。这项研究将阐明传粉者共享在促进开花植物共存方面所起的作用。

Without pollinators like bees, bats and butterflies, most of the world's flowering plants would disappear. Because of the importance of pollinators, insuring their health is essential for preserving biodiversity and promoting global agricultural security. As pollinators, some native bees can show strong loyalty by limiting their visits to only flowers from a certain species, while other bees may not be so loyal, visiting many different types of flowers. In theory, plants with loyal pollinators should produce more fruit and seeds because the pollinators provide only the appropriate pollen type when they visit. The aim of this research is to understand the degree to which native bees show loyalty to certain plants. This study also explores how the sharing of pollinators between closely related plants might influence how many seeds those plants produce. If some of the plants do worse than others when sharing pollinators, differences in pollinator loyalty may influence how common or rare those plants become. The results of this research are important for understanding the role pollinators play in maintaining healthy and diverse agricultural and natural plant communities. This research contributes to the training of a graduate student, develops a lab and field program for a high school biology class and provides opportunities to engage and encourage women and under-represented students in STEM science.Coexistence theory addresses how species richness is maintained in biological communities by framing species interactions as a balance of competition within versus between species. This study uses that theory to investigate whether pollinator sharing affects coexistence dynamics in four co-occurring plants in the genus Clarkia. Determining whether pollinator sharing is detrimental or favorable for flowering plant coexistence hinges on understanding the flower preference and constancy of native bees that specialize on flowers and the quantity of pollen they provide. The diversity and quantity of pollen found on Clarkia's pollinators will be measured with a genetic identification technique (qPCR). These measurements will be used in conjunction with estimates of each plant species' competitive ability to determine whether shared pollinators can change plant fitness and whether the pattern shows a negative frequency dependence. This study will shed light on the role that pollinator sharing can play in promoting the coexistence of flowering plants.