一項(xiàng)研究報(bào)告說，失去一種傳粉物種可能對(duì)植物繁殖產(chǎn)生不良影響,，其結(jié)果是,，全球傳粉物種的衰退為開花植物和農(nóng)作物帶來的麻煩可能比此前估計(jì)得更多。10多年以來,，研究報(bào)告了諸如蜂和蝴蝶等傳播花粉的物種的衰退,，但是一些研究已經(jīng)提示一個(gè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中的植物群落可以承受大多數(shù)傳粉物種的消失。Berry J. Brosi 和Heather M. Briggs研究了即便只失去一種傳粉物種是否也可能為植物繁殖帶來麻煩,。這組科研人員在科羅拉多州落基山的亞高山草地的研究實(shí)驗(yàn)田中暫時(shí)移走了一種蜂,。僅僅失去一種物種就減少了余下的蜂的“花忠誠度”——它們對(duì)特定植物物種的忠誠度,。而這又會(huì)導(dǎo)致在同一物種的植株個(gè)體之間的花粉傳播得更少，這最終反映在了植物種子的產(chǎn)量減少以及植物繁殖成功的減少,。這組作者說,，這些發(fā)現(xiàn)提示失去一種傳粉物種就能改變其他傳粉者的行為，并且能夠?qū)χ参锓敝钞a(chǎn)生不良影響,。（生物谷 Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦的英文摘要
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1307438110
Single pollinator species losses reduce floral fidelity and plant reproductive function
Berry J. Brosia,b,1 and Heather M. Briggs
Understanding the functional impacts of pollinator species losses on plant populations is critical given ongoing pollinator declines. Simulation models of pollination networks suggest that plant communities will be resilient to losing many or even most of the pollinator species in an ecosystem. These predictions, however, have not been tested empirically and implicitly assume that pollination efficacy is unaffected by interactions with interspecific competitors. By contrast, ecological theory and data from a wide range of ecosystems show that interspecific competition can drive variation in ecological specialization over short timescales via behavioral or morphological plasticity, although the potential implications of such changes in specialization for ecosystem functioning remain unexplored. We conducted manipulative field experiments in which we temporarily removed single pollinator species from study plots in subalpine meadows, to test the hypothesis that interactions between pollinator species can shape individual species’ functional roles via changes in foraging specialization. We show that loss of a single pollinator species reduces floral fidelity (short-term specialization) in the remaining pollinators, with significant implications for ecosystem functioning in terms of reduced plant reproduction, even when potentially effective pollinators remained in the system. Our results suggest that ongoing pollinator declines may have more serious negative implications for plant communities than is currently assumed. More broadly, we show that the individual functional contributions of species can be dynamic and shaped by the community of interspecific competitors, thereby documenting a distinct mechanism for how biodiversity can drive ecosystem functioning, with potential relevance to a wide range of taxa and systems.
