Abstract:
Fruit traits mediate animal-plant interactions and have to a large degree evolved to match the sensory capacities and morphology of their respective dispersers. At the same time, fruit traits are affected by local environmental factors, which may affect frugivore-plant trait match. Temperature has been identified as a major factor with a strong effect on the development of fruits, which is of serious concern because of the rising threat of global warming. Nonetheless, this primarily originates from studies on domesticated cultivars in often controlled environments. Little is known on the effect of rising temperatures on fruit traits of wild species and the implications this could have to seed dispersal networks, including downstream consequences to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In a case study of five plant species from eastern Madagascar, we addressed this using the elevation-for-temperature approach and examined whether a temperature gradient is systematically associated with variation in fruit traits relevant for animal foraging and fruit selection. We sampled across a gradient representing a temperature gradient of 1.5-2.6 °C, corresponding to IPCC projections. The results showed that in most cases there was no significant effect of temperature on the traits evaluated, although some species showed different effects, particularly fruit chemical profiles. This suggests that in these species warming within this range alone is not likely to drive substantial changes in dispersal networks. While no systemic effects were found, the results also indicate that the effect of temperature on fruit traits differs across species and may lead to mismatches in specific animal-plant interactions.
摘要:
果实性状介导动植物相互作用,并且必须在很大程度上进化以匹配其各自分散剂的感官能力和形态。同时,果实性状受当地环境因素的影响,这可能会影响节食植物的性状匹配。温度已被确定为对水果发育有强烈影响的主要因素,由于全球变暖的威胁不断上升,这引起了人们的严重关切。尽管如此,这主要源于在经常受控环境中对驯化品种的研究。对温度升高对野生物种果实性状的影响以及这可能对种子传播网络的影响知之甚少,包括下游对生物多样性和生态系统功能的影响。以马达加斯加东部的五种植物为例,我们使用温度升高方法解决了这一问题,并检查了温度梯度是否与与动物觅食和水果选择相关的水果性状变化有关。我们在代表1.5-2.6°C温度梯度的梯度上采样,与IPCC预测相对应。结果表明,在大多数情况下,温度对所评估的性状没有显着影响。尽管一些物种表现出不同的影响,特别是水果化学简介。这表明,在这些物种中,仅在此范围内的变暖不太可能驱动扩散网络的实质性变化。虽然没有发现系统性影响,结果还表明,温度对果实性状的影响因物种而异,并可能导致特定动植物相互作用的错配。