Abstract Detail

Recent Topics Posters

Needham , Jessica R [1], Larson, Katherine C. [2].

Changes in Seasonal Pollinator Community Composition Affect Fruit Set in an Exotic Vine.

                Climate change can cause phenology shifts in many organisms. If the phenologies of mutualistic organisms such as entomophilous flowering plants and pollinating insects do not shift similarly, temporal mismatches can occur which may impact plant fitness. Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle) is an exotic vine in the southeastern US, where it is completely dependent on local pollinators to produce viable seeds. Lonicera japonica produces flowering shoots when it begins to warm in spring and under optimal moisture conditions continues to produce new flowering shoots until fall. This extended flowering by L. japonica exposes early flowering shoots to different pollinators than late flowering shoots. In this study, I examined the impact of seasonal changes in the pollinating community visiting L. japonica flowers on the fruit set of field grown plants. Flowers produced early in the season rarely produced viable seeds and were visited by fewer pollinators than later flowering shoots. The primary pollinators for these early flowering shoots were European honeybees and syrphid flies. Shoots flowering later in the season had higher fruit set, more total pollinator visits, and a community of pollinators that included small bees (mainly halictids), bombyliid flies, butterflies, and hawkmoths. Because L. japonica has white evening opening flowers with a strong, sweet smell, I hypothesized that hawkmoths played a particularly important role in successful pollination. To test the importance of hawkmoths to L. japonica fruit set, a pollen manipulation experiment compared fruit set from large pollinator (mainly hawkmoth and butterfly) excluded shoots, hand-pollinated shoots, and naturally pollinated shoots. Flowers open to visitation by any size insect had higher fruit set than flowers caged to prevent hawkmoth and large butterfly visitation. Flowering and insect emergence times are likely to respond to climate change, and I found that the presence of hawkmoths and large butterflies during L. japonica flowering is important for fruit set. Future climate changes could result in either increases or decreases in fruit set depending on how such climate changes impact the overlap between L. japonica flowering and hawkmoth and large butterfly emergence.

Broader Impacts:

1 - University of Central Arkansas, Biology, 180 Lewis Science Center, Conway, AR, 72034, USA
2 - University of Central Arkansas, Biology, 180 Lewis Science Center, Conway, AR, 72035, USA

Keywords:
phenology
pollination
Lonicera
invasive species.

Presentation Type: Recent Topics Poster
Session: P
Location: Grand Salon A - D/Riverside Hilton
Date: Monday, July 29th, 2013
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: PRT038
Abstract ID:1334
Candidate for Awards:None