Pollinators adjust their behavior to presence of pollinator-transmitted pathogen in plant population
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11310%2F22%3A10446303" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11310/22:10446303 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=Qw5pgjyC47" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=Qw5pgjyC47</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab153" target="_blank" >10.1093/beheco/arab153</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Pollinators adjust their behavior to presence of pollinator-transmitted pathogen in plant population
Original language description
Pollinators try to avoid visiting flowers infected with pathogens because these flowers offer them lower rewards. Using a grassland perennial and its anther smut pathogen, we show that pollinators are not highly successful in recognizing infected plants from a distance and subsequently avoiding them. However, after landing on plants, pollinators adjust their behavior and leave poorly rewarding infected plants sooner. Pollinators therefore move more among plants and this behavior could enhance pathogen spread. Interactions between pollinators and plants can be affected by presence of plant pathogens that substitute their infectious propagules for pollen in flowers and rely on pollinators for transmission to new hosts. However, it is largely unknown how pollinators integrate cues from diseased plants such as altered floral rewards and floral traits, and how their behavior changes afterwards. Understanding pollinator responses to diseased plants is crucial for predicting both pathogen transmission and pollen dispersal in diseased plant populations. In this study, we investigated pollinator responses to contact with plants of Dianthus carthusianorum diseased with anther smut (Microbotryum carthusianorum). We combined three approaches: 1) observation of individual pollinators foraging in experimental arrays of pre-grown potted plants; 2) measurements of floral rewards and floral traits of healthy and diseased plants; and 3) quantification of pollen/spore loads of pollinator functional groups. We found that pollinators showed only weak preferences for visiting healthy over diseased plants, but after landing on plants, they probed fewer flowers on the diseased ones. Since diseased flowers offered lower nectar and no pollen rewards, this behavior is consistent with the prediction of optimal foraging models that pollinators should spend less time exploring less rewarding patches or plants. Furthermore, pollen-foraging solitary bees and hoverflies responded to diseased plants more negatively than nectar-feeding butterflies did. Lastly, based on group-specific behavior and typical pollen/spore loads, we suggest that solitary bees and hoverflies contribute to both pollen and pathogen spore dispersal mainly over short distances, while butterfly visits are most important for long-distance dispersal.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10611 - Plant sciences, botany
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2022
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Behavioral Ecology
ISSN
1045-2249
e-ISSN
1465-7279
Volume of the periodical
33
Issue of the periodical within the volume
2
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
10
Pages from-to
319-328
UT code for WoS article
000783644500001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85130640824