Some of the most important interactions in plant populations are mediated by the actions of other species, such as pollinators. This project seeks to understand how population level properties influence these cross-species interactions, thereby driving differences in plant reproductive success. Work will be conducted in wild and experimental populations of the flowering plant Silene vulgaris. Natural populations of this species maintain incredibly variable sex ratios, from 7 to 70% female. The large variability of sex ratio among populations provides an excellent natural experiment to test the hypothesis that differences in sex ratio among populations create differences in the recruitment and behavior of pollinators. Pollinator movement and behavior will be recorded, and compared with measurements of reproductive output assessed with molecular markers to determine whether and how social context affects an organism's fitness.
Understanding how population level properties drive ecological interactions is fundamental to understanding the evolutionary process. Determining how social and ecological context influence pollination biology has the potential to inform agricultural practices, which increasingly rely on natural pollinator assemblages with the recent and continued decline in domestic bees. This grant will provide support for the training of a PhD student and support research opportunities for undergraduate students at the Mountain Lake Biological Station.
