Bronstein pointed to pollination, a type of mutualism that has received "90 percent of the attention, because there is absolutely no doubt that plants are flowering earlier due to global climate change."
"This is causing a lot of concern," she said, "because it means that at the time the flowers open, their pollinators may not yet be around. That would mean that pollination of these plants would fail. While that is definitely a possibility and there is some good evidence for it in some situations, it is not the only thing that can happen when pollination gets disrupted. For example, there are known cases in which pollinators have been lost from an island through overhunting, and the plants have evolved traits that allow them to be pollinated by other animals."
Seed dispersal is another example. Many plants rely on mammals catching their fruit in their fur and carrying them to new habitats. Where large mammals were forced out of an ecosystem through habitat destruction or hunting, the plants were found to evolve smaller and smaller fruit that could be carried by smaller mammals or birds.
As different as the relationship between a flower and a bee may seem from coral polyps that cultivate microbes in their tissue, Bronstein and her co-workers identified certain recurring themes.
For example, how a mutualistic relationships plays out depends a lot on its ecological setting, Bronstein explained.
"Many species of ants milk aphids for the highly nutritious honeydew they produce. In return, the ants protect them from predators and parasites. But if the ants get starved for protein, they will eat the aphids, very readily. So the effect the ants have on the aphids ranges from highly beneficial to detrimental. To assess any mutualistic relationship, you have to know its context."
The authors identify three scenarios that can happen over the course of evolutiona
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| Contact: Daniel Stolte stolte@email.arizona.edu 520-626-4402 University of Arizona Source:Eurekalert |