Poster Session I
Project Type
Poster
Project Funding and Affiliations
Division of Biological & Biomedical Sciences, Niwot Ridge LTER
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Meredith Zettlemoyer
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Additional Mentor
Devi Tejaswini, dt238932@umconnect.umt.edu
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Gynodioecious plants have female and hermaphroditic individuals, but reproductive success varies between the sexes due to differences in reproductive traits. Females allocate more resources to seed production, whereas hermaphrodites allocate resources to both pollen and seed production. Female flowers may also have longer styles and longer stigma papillae, providing a larger surface for pollen receipt compared to hermaphrodites. Although females in gynodioecious systems may have reproductive advantages, it remains unclear whether this advantage is reflected in patterns of pollen deposition. Pollen deposition is also affected by the amount of flowering overlap, or synchrony, with co-flowering neighbors. Increased synchrony with conspecific neighbors should increase conspecific pollen deposition. In contrast, increased synchrony with heterospecific neighbors may attract more pollinators via larger, diverse floral displays, potentially increasing overall pollen deposition but also the transfer of heterospecific pollen. We examine how flowering synchrony with both con- and heterospecific neighbors affects confamilial pollen deposition in female and hermaphroditic individuals of two gynodioecious alpine cushion plants, Silene acaulis and Minuarita obtusiloba. We quantified confamilial and heterospecific pollen grains on stigmas collected from the Niwot Ridge LTER, CO. We hypothesize that females will receive more total pollen than hermaphrodites, but hermaphrodites will receive more confamilal pollen. We predict that conspecific pollen deposition will increase with increasing conspecific flowering synchrony and decrease with increasing heterospecific flowering synchrony, but that the strength of these relationships will differ between the two sexes. Evaluating potential differences consequences of flowering synchrony for pollen deposition in both sexes will further our understanding of mating dynamics in gynodioecious plant systems.
Category
Life Sciences
Differences in Flowering Time and Pollen Deposition for Female and Hermaphroditic Alpine Cushion Plants
UC South Ballroom
Gynodioecious plants have female and hermaphroditic individuals, but reproductive success varies between the sexes due to differences in reproductive traits. Females allocate more resources to seed production, whereas hermaphrodites allocate resources to both pollen and seed production. Female flowers may also have longer styles and longer stigma papillae, providing a larger surface for pollen receipt compared to hermaphrodites. Although females in gynodioecious systems may have reproductive advantages, it remains unclear whether this advantage is reflected in patterns of pollen deposition. Pollen deposition is also affected by the amount of flowering overlap, or synchrony, with co-flowering neighbors. Increased synchrony with conspecific neighbors should increase conspecific pollen deposition. In contrast, increased synchrony with heterospecific neighbors may attract more pollinators via larger, diverse floral displays, potentially increasing overall pollen deposition but also the transfer of heterospecific pollen. We examine how flowering synchrony with both con- and heterospecific neighbors affects confamilial pollen deposition in female and hermaphroditic individuals of two gynodioecious alpine cushion plants, Silene acaulis and Minuarita obtusiloba. We quantified confamilial and heterospecific pollen grains on stigmas collected from the Niwot Ridge LTER, CO. We hypothesize that females will receive more total pollen than hermaphrodites, but hermaphrodites will receive more confamilal pollen. We predict that conspecific pollen deposition will increase with increasing conspecific flowering synchrony and decrease with increasing heterospecific flowering synchrony, but that the strength of these relationships will differ between the two sexes. Evaluating potential differences consequences of flowering synchrony for pollen deposition in both sexes will further our understanding of mating dynamics in gynodioecious plant systems.