Abstract
Effects of global changes on biodiversity have been paid more and more attention world widely, and the open top chambers (OTCs) are the most common tools to study the effects of climatic warming on plant diversity. However, it remains unclear how flowers evolve under environmental changes, which could help us to understand the changes of plant diversity in the OTCs. We compared the insect diversity and pollen:ovule (P/O) ratio of eight outcrossing species with different life histories inside and outside the OTCs on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, to examine the effects induced by OTCs on the evolution of floral traits. In the OTCs, P/O ratio decreased in annuals, but increased in perennials, indicating an overall trend toward selfing in annuals. We found that the insect diversity differed significantly inside and outside the OTCS, with decreases of dipteran insects and bees. We concluded that changes of P/O ratio in the studied plant species might result from pollination failure, which might be the results of mismatch between flowering time and pollinator activities. We also suggested annuals might be in a more extinction risk than perennials in OTCs, if strong inbreeding depression occurs in these annual outcrossing plants.
Highlights
Global changes, especially warming, have been paid more and more attention world widely
We addressed the following questions: 1) what are the differences in the insect diversity between inside and outside the open top chambers (OTCs); 2) what are the differences in the P/O ratio between inside and outside the OTCs? Our results would be of great help to understand the evolutionary trend of mating systems of plant species in the OTCs, and provide a preliminary support on the priority of biodiversity conservation in the changing world
Variations of P/O ratio were demonstrated recently to be governed by pollination efficiency[13], and a low P/O ratio is necessary to guarantee seed set, which was generally found in plant species with mating systems of selfing[20,21]
Summary
Especially warming, have been paid more and more attention world widely. The OTCs in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau around this station have been established for more than ten years[3] It remains unclear how flowers and the mating system of plant species evolve under environmental changes induced by the OTCs, and these results could help us to understand why some plant species disappeared under experimental warming in the OTCs. In the present study, we compared the insect diversity and P/O ratio in eight outcrossing species with different life histories inside and outside the OTCs, to examine the effects induced by OTCs on the evolution of floral traits. Our results would be of great help to understand the evolutionary trend of mating systems of plant species in the OTCs, and provide a preliminary support on the priority of biodiversity conservation in the changing world We addressed the following questions: 1) what are the differences in the insect diversity between inside and outside the OTCs; 2) what are the differences in the P/O ratio between inside and outside the OTCs? Our results would be of great help to understand the evolutionary trend of mating systems of plant species in the OTCs, and provide a preliminary support on the priority of biodiversity conservation in the changing world
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