Honors Thesis Archive
| Author | Alison Bewley |
|---|---|
| Title | Quantifying the Distance that Solitary Bee Genera Move Pollen in a Fragmented Prairie Plant Population |
| Department | Biology |
| Advisors | Dr. Jennifer Ison, Dr. Matthew Collier, and Dr. Michael Mattison |
| Year | 2015 |
| Honors | University Honors |
| Full Text | View Thesis (345 KB) At the author's request, an electronic copy of this thesis is only available to on-campus users. |
| Abstract | Less than 1% of pre-settlement tallgrass prairie exists today, and the enduring habitat consists of small isolated populations that are at risk of extinction due to several ecological and genetic consequences. I study a native self-incompatible common prairie perennial, Echinacea angustifolia, to determine the risk of extinction in prairie plant populations. Previous research has shown that E. angustifolia’s 26 key pollinators vary in their ability to fertilize an ovule; however, in small populations, the distance and genetic diversity of the pollen transported can influence population persistence. I examined how these pollinator taxa differ in the distance the pollen grains travel between E. angustifolia plants and if taxa carry pollen from a different number of sires. I performed paternity analyses using 11 microsatellite loci on 118 offspring that resulted from pollen transfer from 5 pollinator taxa. I found that, while there is no significant difference across taxa with regards to the distance pollen moved or the number of near neighbors pollen moved between, solitary bee taxa move pollen between 12.86 m and 22.41 m. They move pollen between the paternal plant and its 51st to 70th nearest neighbor, and most offspring within a sibling group had different sires. Two explanations for these phenomena are that solitary bees do not forage as systematically as social bees, and that solitary bees have greater pollen carryover, potentially due to how they pack pollen. These results increase our understanding of how non-continuous communities function to enact more efficient conservation efforts in these vulnerable habitats. |
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