Secondary compounds in floral rewards of toxic rangeland plants: impacts on pollinators.

The study of plant secondary chemistry has been essential in understanding plant consumption by herbivores. There is growing evidence that secondary compounds also occur in floral rewards, including nectar and pollen. Many pollinators are generalist nectar and pollen foragers and thus are exposed to an array of secondary compounds in their diet. This review documents secondary compounds in the nectar or pollen of poisonous rangeland plants of the western United States and the effects of these compounds on the behavior, performance, and survival of pollinators. Furthermore, the biochemical, physiological, and behavioral mechanisms by which pollinators cope with secondary compound consumption are discussed, drawing parallels between pollinators and herbivores. Finally, three avenues of future research on floral reward chemistry are proposed. Given that the majority of flowering plants require animals for pollination, understanding how floral reward chemistry affects pollinators has implications for plant reproduction in agricultural and rangeland habitats.

Effects of abiotic factors and species interactions on estimates of male plant function: a meta-analysis.

The majority of angiosperms are hermaphroditic with total fitness comprised of both male and female components of reproduction. However, most studies examining the effects of abiotic factors and species interactions on fitness have focussed on female reproduction, potentially biasing our understanding of the consequences of environmental factors on total fitness. Here, we use meta-analysis to test how environmental factors affect male function. We obtained 278 effect sizes from 96 studies that measured male function responses to manipulated environmental factors. We found significant effects of abiotic factors and species interactions on estimates of male function, with responses varying depending on environmental factor identity. Male and female responses were correlated for abiotic factor manipulations, but varied based on the type of species interaction (antagonistic or mutualistic). This suggests that measuring only female function may misrepresent whole-plant reproduction depending on context. Finally, we found differences amongst components of male function in response to environmental factors, suggesting that some male function estimates may fail to capture the effects of environmental factors on male fitness. Our results demonstrate the importance of incorporating male function into ecological and evolutionary studies to provide a more accurate understanding of the effects of environmental factors on total fitness.

Ecological context influences pollinator deterrence by alkaloids in floral nectar.

Secondary compounds may benefit plants by deterring herbivores, but the presence of these defensive chemicals in floral nectar may also deter beneficial pollinators. This trade-off between sexual reproduction and defense has received minimal study. We determined whether the pollinator-deterring effects of a nectar alkaloid found in the perennial vine Gelsemium sempervirens depend on ecological context (i.e. the availability of alternative nectar sources) by monitoring the behavioural response of captive bumblebees (Bombus impatiens, an important pollinator of G. sempervirens in nature) to nectar alkaloids in several ecologically relevant scenarios. Although alkaloids in floral nectar tended to deter visitation by bumblebees, the magnitude of that effect depended greatly on the availability and nectar properties of alternative flowers. Ecological context should thus be considered when assessing ecological costs of plant defense in terms of pollination services. We consider adaptive strategies that would enable plants to minimize pollinator deterrence because of defensive compounds in flowers.