The impacts of climate change on pollinator-plant interactions

气候变化正在改变动植物之间的相互作用，而动植物相互作用在维持生态系统结构和功能方面发挥着关键作用。植物与无脊椎动物的相互作用尤其关键，因为许多开花植物依靠无脊椎动物授粉，从而进行有性繁殖，而许多无脊椎动物依靠植物作为食物。当物种的生物学改变时，这些相互作用可能会受到影响，生命周期事件的时间变化，如开花，可能导致错配或植物材料化学成分的变化改变其对无脊椎动物消费者的价值。这些变化可能会对最初经历这些变化的物种和依赖这些变化的物种产生深远的影响。在这项研究中，我们研究了降水和冬季温度的变化如何改变石灰性草原上的植物物种，以及通过位于英国山顶区的巴克斯顿气候变化影响实验室的长期气候实验，为无脊椎动物提供的资源的潜在影响。开花物候的变化将通过2013年和2022年生长季的两个长期数据集进行探索，这两个物种的个体反应和群落的反应将在一段时间内与功能特征相关。通过2022年BCCIL的种子集收集，并考虑到物候变化的潜在影响，研究了气候处理对植物繁殖的影响。最后，将进行BCCIL长期处理的植物的化学成分和叶营养物质，然后在Ness Gardens的普通花园实验中进一步暴露于处理，ED-XRF荧光光谱分析提供详细的元素浓度。因此，允许探索植物中的塑料和进化反应。这项研究将提供关于植物对变化的降水和变暖制度的反应的独特和详细的结果，并阐明这可能如何对与无脊椎动物的相互作用造成影响。通过对包括草、莎草和草本植物在内的广泛物种进行研究，这些发现将概述对整个植物群落的潜在影响，并可能为未来在面临持续环境变化时保护这些生态系统及其关键的植物-无脊椎动物互动提供参考。

Climate change is altering plant-animal interactions, which play a key role in maintaining ecosystem structure and function. Plant-invertebrate interactions are particularly critical as many flowering plants rely on invertebrates for pollination and thus sexual reproduction, while many invertebrates rely on plants for food. These interactions can be impacted when species have their biology altered, with changes in the timing of life cycle events, such as flowering, potentially causing mismatches or the alteration of chemical composition of plant material changing its value to invertebrate consumers. These changes can have far-reaching repercussions for both the initial species experiencing the changes and those that depend on it. In this study we examine how changes in precipitation and winter temperatures may alter plant species in calcareous grasslands and the potential ramifications for resources provided for invertebrates via the long-term climatic experiment at Buxton Climate Change Impact Laboratory situated in the Peak District in the UK. Changes in flowering phenology will be explored via two long-term datasets from the growing seasons of 2013 and 2022, with both species' individual responses and the responses of the community as a while examined in relation to functional traits. The ramifications of the climatic treatments on plant reproduction are investigated via seed set collections from BCCIL in 2022 and considering potential impacts due to altered phenology. Finally, the chemical composition and leaf nutrients from plants exposed to the long-term treatments at BCCIL and then further exposed to treatments in a common garden experiment at Ness Gardens will be undertaken, with ED-XRF fluorescence spectrometry providing detailed elemental concentrations. Thus, allowing for the exploration of both plastic and evolved responses in plants. This study will provide unique and detailed results on the responses of plants to altered precipitation and warming regimes and shed light on how this may cause impacts on the interactions with invertebrates. By conducting research across a broad range of species, including grass, sedges and herbaceous species, the findings will give an overview of the potential impacts on the whole plant community and potentially inform future strategies for preserving these ecosystems and their critical plant-invertebrate interactions in the face of ongoing environmental change.