Assistant Professor of Biology Ashoka University, Sonipat, India Sonipat, Haryana, India
Abstract: Background/Questions/Methods
Climate change manifests in extreme events such as severe droughts, floods, and heat waves. Such events can severely impact plant reproductive success and fitness by impairing floral physiological processes or disrupting plant-pollinator networks. Drought or reduced water availability has been a predominant concern in cropland and natural tropical ecosystems. While negative impacts on yield have been shown, the array of mechanisms used to cope or respond to drought conditions is little known in animal-pollinated species. In this study, we simulated low and moderate drought conditions in a greenhouse experiment and examined the impact of such conditions on the floral traits of a buzz-pollinated species. We also investigated the extent of intraspecific variation exhibited in these different conditions. Buzz-pollinated plants form one such group of angiosperms, offering nutrient-rich pollen and reliant on specialized bee pollinators capable of producing thoracic vibrations required to eject pollen from tube-like poricidal anthers. They represent about 20,000 species of angiosperms, most of which have specialized anthers called poricidal anthers and include various economically essential crops. We hypothesized that plants treated with low and moderate drought conditions would exhibit early onset of flowering, reduced floral longevity, attractiveness, and overall flower production.
Results/Conclusions
Our study found that the onset of flowering was similar among the treatments, whereas the floral display was higher in control plants. Interestingly, moderate drought plants showed a higher floral display than low drought. The morphometric traits important for attractiveness - petal length, petal width, floral diameter, and flower height were significantly reduced in drought-treated plants. Thus, the overall attractiveness of the flower was reduced in the individuals of Solanum lycopersicum exposed to drought treatments. Such interaction is likely to impact pollinator interactions. Overall, our study will provide valuable insights into the responses of plant species and their reproductive fitness in the context of rapidly changing climatic conditions. Since this was an experimentally manipulated drought condition, it would also be essential to look at how the decrementation of water in natural conditions affects the vegetative traits, floral traits, and plant reproduction, thereby influencing communities.
