IMBIV   05474
INSTITUTO MULTIDISCIPLINARIO DE BIOLOGIA VEGETAL
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Pollination Biology: Interdisciplinarity in Education from Molecules to Landscapes.
Autor/es:
KEVAN P; VIANA BF; GALETTO L; FREITAS, B.; VERGARA C; MLENDEZ-RAMIREZ V; DAFNI A; BERNHARDT P
Revista:
Biology International
Editorial:
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2013 vol. 53 p. 35 - 53
ISSN:
1916-9671
Resumen:
The interrelations between flowers and animals have excited the imaginations of scientific
luminaries for over two centuries. The fascinating and intricate ways that cement the processes of the crucially important ecosystem function of pollination in environments from those in intensively managed agriculture to those in remote wilderness transcend disciplines from biogeography to biochemistry. It is little wonder that pollination lends itself to interdisciplinary instruction and a comprehensive approach to teaching and learning. The dive
rsity of flower visitors ranges from springtails to giraffes whose sensory physiology and neurobiology makes floral attributes recognizable. Flower visitors see flowers by colour and colour pattern, size, shape, and movement; they smell flowers from being
close at hand or far away; they can feel the microscopic textural
features on floral surfaces; sense and utilize emitted or reflected warmth; and react to the temporal presence of floral resources. The flowers advertise themselves in those sensory modalities through morphological, physical, and biochemical signals. They also provide resources such as carbohydrate fuel for locomotion (nectar), protein in pollen, oils and lipids as food, resins and gums used for nestbuilding, and perfumes to help in mating. The ways in which flower v isitors forage not only emphasiz es efficiencies in resource acquisition and expenditure through optimal foraging, they alsoinfluence the movement of pollen from plant to plant, flower to flower, in the efficiencies of
pollina
tion and plant mating and breeding systems. The dimensions and dynamics of pollination
present a huge array of co
-
evolutionary patterns even in a weedy field, let alone a pristine tropic
rainforest. The co
-
evolutionary processes involve competition amongs
t plants for pollinators and
amongst flower visitors for floral resources; they involve character displacements in blooming and
activity times (phenology) as well as in floral characters and flower visitor anatomy. Some
apparently co
-
evolved features, suc
h as in the chemistry of nectar, remain to be experimentally
explained. Then, somewhat apart from all the foregoing, are the mysteries of pollination by wind
and water. Recent concerns, voiced internationally, for the value, importance and status of
poll
ination in natural to agricultural systems are becoming increasingly heard. How pollination
contributes to functioning and sustainable ecosystems is a new area for studies on community
interactions, redundancy in biodiversity, and conservation. Pollinatio
n is an ancient and crucial
ecosystem service and without pollination by animals, the world would be a very different place.
Students taking the course
,
described
herein,
learn through
both
Scholar Academic (lectures) and
Learner Centered (ha
nds
-
on experie
nces) activities. T
h
e course challenges the students?
multiple
intelligences
that range
from mathematical and logical to naturalistic.