Land use change threatens global biodiversity and compromises ecosystem functions, including pollination and food production. Reduced taxonomic α-diversity is often reported under land use change, yet the impacts could be different at larger spatial scales (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile floral signaling plays a central role in the reproductive success of all animal-pollinated plants, it may also attract herbivores eager to feed on flowers. False nectaries with glossy surfaces reflecting incident light may produce signals that attract floral visitors guiding their movements to and within the flower. Whether false nectaries also attract herbivores that lower the reproductive success of natural populations requires attention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis a tree/shrub species considered dioecious and broadly distributed in Brazil. Despite its importance for niche composition in a range of ecosystems, there is little knowledge about this species, and so far no study has analyzed its sexual system. We aimed to investigate dioecy expression in through sexual dimorphisms in its phenology and floral biology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Sci Food Agric
April 2021
Background: Natural environments within agricultural landscapes have been recognized as reservoirs of biodiversity and, therefore, providers of fundamental ecosystem services to human beings. Bees are the main providers of pollination and thus contribute to the production of food consumed worldwide. In this work, we evaluated the distribution of bees in an agricultural landscape of coffee plantation before and after coffee flowering.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Large clades of angiosperms are often characterized by diverse interactions with pollinators, but how these pollination systems are structured phylogenetically and biogeographically is still uncertain for most families. Apocynaceae is a clade of >5300 species with a worldwide distribution. A database representing >10 % of species in the family was used to explore the diversity of pollinators and evolutionary shifts in pollination systems across major clades and regions.
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