花的颜色是植物和授粉生物学家的主要兴趣。越来越多的研究已经调查了花色的饱和度(通常称为“光谱纯度”或“色度”)对传粉者的可见度的重要性,但是概念上,这些指标的生理和行为基础以及使用的计算都基于细长的基础。
我们讨论了来自人类感知的颜色属性的警告,特别是光谱纯度和色度,作为花颜色分析中的变量。我们重新分析了七个已发布的数据集,这些数据集包含774个测量的反射光谱,以测试颜色对比度之间的相关性。光谱纯度和色度。
我们确定了动物颜色空间中常见计算程序的几个问题。对动物色觉的研究没有理由认为任何传粉者都能感知(或响应)饱和,人类的色度或光谱纯度。对已发布数据集的重新分析表明,花朵与其背景之间的颜色对比度值与光谱纯度和色度的度量高度相关,将这些因素视为独立变量是目前司空见惯的。引人注目的是,光谱纯度和色度-两者都是饱和度的度量标准,通常同义使用-根本不相关。我们得出结论,替代方案,花对传粉者的可见性的行为验证指标,如颜色对比和消色差对比,更好地理解花的颜色在植物传粉者信号中的作用。
The colours of flowers are of key interest to plant and pollination biologists. An increasing number of studies have investigated the importance of saturation of flower colours (often called \'spectral purity\' or \'chroma\') for visibility to pollinators, but the conceptual, physiological and behavioural foundations for these metrics as well as the calculations used rest on slender foundations.
We discuss the caveats of colour attributes that are derived from human perception, and in particular spectral purity and chroma, as variables in flower colour analysis. We re-analysed seven published datasets encompassing 774 measured reflectance spectra to test for correlations between colour contrast, spectral purity and chroma.
We identify several concerns with common calculation procedures in animal colour spaces. Studies on animal colour vision provide no ground to assume that any pollinator perceives (or responds to) saturation, chroma or spectral purity in the way humans do. A re-analysis of published datasets revealed that values for colour contrast between flowers and their background are highly correlated with measures for spectral purity and chroma, which invalidates treating these factors as independent variables as is currently commonplace. Strikingly, spectral purity and chroma - both of which are metrics for saturation and are often used synonymously - are not correlated at all. We conclude that alternative, behaviourally validated metrics for the visibility of flowers to pollinators, such as colour contrast and achromatic contrast, are better in understanding the role of flower colour in plant-pollinator signalling.