Abstract Detail
Pollination Biology Travers, Steven [1]. Reduced Reproductive Success in Early Flowering Pasqueflower (Anemone patens): What are the Consequences of Phenological Shifts? Climate change has the potential for disrupting ecological relationships between pollinators and plants dependent on them for reproduction by shifting plant phenological patterns earlier due to warmer spring temperatures. In the Northern Great Plains the annual number of frost free days has increased by 39 days on average since 1900. We measured the reproductive success of the earliest flowering species in the tallgrass prairie of Minnesota (Anemone patens) over the course of flowering to determine if reproductive success of individuals is the same regardless of when they flower. By conducting controlled hand pollinations and allowing open pollinations we estimated the degree of pollen limitation for early, middle and late flowering plants. The proportion of viable seeds produced per flower was lower for open pollinated plants relative to hand pollinated plants only in the first week of flowering suggesting that pollen deposition is limited at the beginning of the flowering phase for this species. In the context of warmer spring temperatures this limitation should represent a cost to shifting flowering phenology earlier.
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Related Links:
Flowering Phenology in the Northern Great Plains
1 - North Dakota State University, Biological Sciences, NDSU Dept. 2715, 218 Stevens Hall, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND, 58108-6050, USA
Keywords:
phenology
pollen limitation
pollination
reproductive success.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Topics
Session: 30
Location: Wasatch A/Cliff Lodge - Level C
Date: Monday, July 27th, 2009
Time: 3:45 PM
Number: 30001
Abstract ID:374 | 
