Changes in plant-pollinator interactions deplete plant progeny fitness in fragmented landscapes

AGUILAR R.; CRISTOBAL-PEREZ, J.; BALVINO-OLVERA, F.; AGUILAR-AGUILAR, M.; AGUIRRE-ACOSTA, N.; ASHWORTH L.; QUESADA, M.

Mérida

Congreso; 54th Annual Meeting of the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation; 2017

Over the past two decades there has been muchresearch to determine habitat fragmentation effects on the mutualisticinteractions involved in sexual plant reproduction and seed dispersal, whichshape the reproductive success and genetic characteristics of remnantpopulations. Reduced area of remaining natural habitats and hostileagricultural matrices reduce pollinator richness and abundance. As a resultplant populations produce on average less quantity of progeny in fragmentedhabitats. An equally important but a less-well recognized feature of plantreproduction is the genetic and biological quality of progeny, which representsthe complementary aspect of the reproductive event as it determines therecruitment and survival potential of plant populations. Here we show resultsof a systematic literature review to determine overall habitat fragmentationeffects on the genetic characteristics of progeny and on progeny performance.We found strong overall negative fragmentation effects on progeny performance in105 unique plant species across the world. Progeny performance of pioneerspecies were significantly less affected than late successional species.Progeny generated in fragmented landscapes were genetically less diverse andshowed higher inbreeding coefficients than progeny from continuous habitats.Interestingly, we also found a significant negative relationship betweenprogeny performance and inbreeding coefficients: individuals with higherinbreeding coefficients showed lower performance in fragmented habitats. Ourresults indicate that fragmentation effects on progeny performance is mostlydue to changes in mating patterns elicited by pollinators, increasingself-pollination and/or mating among relatives. We discuss the implications ofthese findings for long-term plant population persistence in ubiquitousfragmented landscapes.