Abstract
Accurate records of floral visitors are critical for understanding plant pollinator interactions. However, to date, sampling methods are constrained to short sampling periods and may be subject to observer interference. Thus, complete records without sampling bias are rare. We use a portable time-lapse digital video camera to capture near-complete records of visitors to flowers over their entire blooming period. We show the broad applicability of this method by filming a wide variety of flowers of different shapes and inflorescence types. We test the importance of long-term records by studying visitors to Cornus canadensis (bunchberry dogwood). Visitors to C. canadensis filmed simultaneously at four different sites show variation (both in rates and taxa) between inflorescences, between sites, throughout the day, and throughout the season. For C. canadensis our films also provide a record of pollen placement (an indirect measure of male fitness) and fruit set (female fitness). This technique provides near complete records of floral visitors, is likely to capture rare events, and allows simultaneous long-term filming. These results emphasize the importance of both long-term data collection and simultaneous recording at multiple sites for pollination studies.
Highlights
Plant pollinator systems provide essential ecosystem services (Klein et al 2007; Classen et al 2009; Hein 2009), are important for understanding speciation patterns (Kay & Sargent 2009; van der Niet & Johnson 2012), and are model systems for studying mutualisms (Blüthgen et al 2007)
We focus on bunchberry dogwood
We focused on Cornus canadensis because the basic ecology of bunchberry dogwood is well documented (Edwards et al 2005; Whitaker et al 2007) and we already had an extensive well-identified collection of insect visitors to this species, which greatly facilitates insect identification
Summary
Plant pollinator systems provide essential ecosystem services (Klein et al 2007; Classen et al 2009; Hein 2009), are important for understanding speciation patterns (Kay & Sargent 2009; van der Niet & Johnson 2012), and are model systems for studying mutualisms (Blüthgen et al 2007). We report a weatherproof digital camera system that allows for long-term uninterrupted time-lapse photography to capture near complete records of visits over the entire bloom of a flower. This system is inexpensive and portable, allowing simultaneous filming at multiple sites and use in remote field situations. We use this system to film visitors to thirty different flower species demonstrating its broad applicability to flowers with different morphologies. Cornaceae) as a case study and show that long-term videos and simultaneous filming reveal the complexity of this pollination system by documenting unexpected temporal and spatial variation in
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