INVESTIGADORES
ASHWORTH Lorena
artículos
Título:
Determinants of plant reproductive susceptibility to habitat fragmentation: review and synthesis through a meta-analysis
Autor/es:
AGUILAR, R.; LORENA ASHWORTH; LEONARDO GALETTO; AIZEN, M. A.
Revista:
Ecology Letters
Editorial:
Wiley
Referencias:
Lugar: Francia; Año: 2006 vol. 9 p. 968 - 980
Resumen:
AbstractThe loss and fragmentation of natural habitats by human activities are pervasivephenomena in terrestrial ecosystems across the Earth and the main driving forces behindcurrent biodiversity loss. Animal-mediated pollination is a key process for the sexualreproduction of most extant flowering plants, and the one most consistently studied inthe context of habitat fragmentation. By means of a meta-analysis we quantitativelyreviewed the results from independent fragmentation studies throughout the last twodecades, with the aim of testing whether pollination and reproduction of plant speciesmay be differentially susceptible to habitat fragmentation depending on certainreproductive traits that typify the relationship with and the degree of dependence ontheir pollinators. We found an overall large and negative effect of fragmentation onpollination and on plant reproduction. The compatibility system of plants, which reflectsthe degree of dependence on pollinator mutualism, was the only reproductive trait thatexplained the differences among the species effect sizes. Furthermore, a highlysignificant correlation between the effect sizes of fragmentation on pollination andreproductive success suggests that the most proximate cause of reproductive impairmentin fragmented habitats may be pollination limitation. We discuss the conservationimplications of these findings and give some suggestions for future research into thisarea.