Abstract
The campo rupestre is a Neotropical OCBIL (old, climatically buffered infertile landscape), a grassy-shrub vegetation with high species richness and endemism, characterized by rocky outcrops surrounded by grasslands distributed in South American ancient mountaintops. We tested one OCBIL prediction: the prevalence of long-distance pollinators ensuring cross-pollination across the archipelago-like landscapes of the campo rupestre. We described the pollination systems and tested whether their frequency differed across vegetation types and elevation, focusing on long-distance systems. We performed non-systematic and systematic surveys of plants and plant-pollinator interactions across the elevation gradient and vegetation types. We also reviewed the literature on campo rupestre pollination and applied an accuracy criterion to infer 11 pollination systems. The bee system was split into large bee (long-distance) and small bee (shorter distances) to test the prevalence of long-distance pollination systems. We surveyed 413 pollinator species, mostly bees (220) and flies (69). Among the 636 plant species studied, the bee pollination system was dominant (56%), followed by wind and hummingbird. Wind, small-bee and fly pollination systems increased with elevation, and small-bee and wind pollination systems prevailed in grasslands. Large-bee and hummingbird long-distance pollination systems remained unchanged with elevation and were more frequent in the highly isolated rocky outcrops corroborating the OCBIL theory.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Tidsskrift | Biological Journal of the Linnean Society |
| Vol/bind | 133 |
| Udgave nummer | 2 |
| Sider (fra-til) | 512-530 |
| Antal sider | 19 |
| ISSN | 0024-4066 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2021 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:This manuscript is a contribution to OCBIL theory: a new science for old ecosystems, a special issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. The authors thank Dr Soizig Le Stradic, Dr Rosana Romero, Dr Fernando Silveira, Dr Cassiano Welker, Jacqueline S. Mattos and Dr Gustavo Shimizu for helping with plant species identification. Dr Soizig Le Stradic also contributed to the systematic plant survey. We would like to thank the Divulgare group for providing the pollinators' icons (www.divulgare. net). We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments to improve our manuscript. Our research was supported by S?o Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grants: Microsoft Research Institute #2013/50155-0, FAPESP-Vale grant #2010/51307-0, #2009/54208-6, and by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) grants: CNPq #400717/2013-1, all to L.P.C.M. M.G.G.C. received (grant #161293/2015-8) and FAPESP (grants: #2015/10754-8 and #2018/21646-0) scholarships. B.L.M. received fellowship and support from the CAPESP - Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior-Brasil (CAPES Finance Code 001). L.P.C.M. receives research productivity grants from CNPq (#311820/2018-2). This study is integrated into the Red Cyted-Sepodi-Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnolog?a para el Desarrollo (417RT0527). L.P.C.M. integrates the National Institutes for Science and Technology (INCT) in (proc. 465610/2014-5) and the UNESP-CAPESPrInt Program. We thank ICMBio for granting the permits needed to work at Serra do Cipo National Park (PNSC) and its buffer zone. We also thank the Reserva Vellozia, Pousada Pouso do Elefante and Cedro Company for allowing access to private areas around the PNSC, and PELD-CRSC for the infrastructure and support. We are very grateful to our colleagues from the Phenology Laboratory for their helpful insights and discussions. The authors declare that they do not have any conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.