PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 85: Mutualism: Pollination
Wednesday, August 10, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 520 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Is pollination success of spring beauty related to amount of forest cover in local landscapes?

Lin, Chia-Hua^*,1, Scott, Peter ¹, ¹ Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN

ABSTRACT- Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) is an abundant native spring ephemeral in Indiana's deciduous forests. Its ubiquity in forest patches of all sizes makes it useful for studying how forest loss affects pollination systems, but also suggests that individual's reproductive success in this species is not affected by variation in forest cover. I tested the hypothesis that Claytonia seed set is limited by inadequate pollinator service, and that such limitation becomes more pronounced as the amount of forest cover declines. Plants in three sites received one of three treatments: natural visitation only, supplemental outcross pollination of 35% of flowers, or supplemental outcrossing of 70% of flowers. There was a weak but significant effect of treatment in the expected direction, with seed set 13-16% higher in the 70% supplemented treatment than in the other two. Site differences were more pronounced, with the most heavily forested site having approximately 50% higher seed set than two other sites. The largest source of variance in seed set was a flower's position in a plant's flowering sequence. Seed set declined steadily, in all treatments, from week 1 to week 3 of flowering.

Key words: pollination success, forest cover, generalist, seed set