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Related Concept Videos

Pollination and Flower Structure02:40

Pollination and Flower Structure

Flowers are the reproductive, seed-producing structures of angiosperms. Typically, flowers consist of sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels. Sepals and petals are the vegetative flower organs. Stamens and carpels are the reproductive organs.
Formation of Species01:31

Formation of Species

Speciation describes the formation of one or more new species from one or sometimes multiple original species. The resulting species are discrete from the parent species, and barriers to reproduction will typically exist. There are two primary mechanisms, speciation with and without geographic isolation—allopatric and sympatric speciation, respectively.
Migration00:53

Migration

Migration is long-range, seasonal movement from one region or habitat to another. This common strategy, carried out by many different organisms around the world, is an adaptive response that typically corresponds to changes in an organism’s environment, like resource availability or climate. Migrations can involve huge groups of thousands of animals as well as single individuals traveling alone and can range from thousands of kilometers to just a few hundred meters.
Gene Flow02:39

Gene Flow

Gene flow is the transfer of genes among populations, resulting from either the dispersal of gametes or from the migration of individuals.
Frequency-dependent Selection01:21

Frequency-dependent Selection

When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.
Conservation of Declining Populations02:07

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 29, 2026

Field Experiments of Pollination Ecology: The Case of Lycoris sanguinea var. sanguinea
07:19

Field Experiments of Pollination Ecology: The Case of Lycoris sanguinea var. sanguinea

Published on: November 25, 2016

Rapid evolution caused by pollinator loss in Mimulus guttatus.

Sarah A Bodbyl Roels1, John K Kelly

  • 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, 1200 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, Kansas 66046, USA. scheetah@ku.edu

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|September 3, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Pollinator loss rapidly drove wildflower populations to evolve self-fertilization. This study observed immediate evolutionary changes in plant mating systems due to environmental pressures.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Plant Sciences

Background:

  • Anthropogenic changes like habitat loss and disease disrupt pollinator communities.
  • These disruptions create new selection pressures on plants, potentially altering plant mating systems.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To experimentally demonstrate the immediate evolutionary effects of pollinator loss on a wild plant population.
  • To observe the evolution of mating systems in response to altered pollination dynamics.

Main Methods:

  • Experimental populations of a predominantly outcrossing wildflower were subjected to two pollination treatments: abundant bumblebees versus no pollinators.
  • Populations evolved for five generations under these distinct pollination conditions.
  • Phenotypic and genetic traits, including floral morphology, development, life history, and allele frequencies, were analyzed.

Main Results:

  • Populations without pollinators initially experienced reduced fitness but recovered by evolving increased self-fertilization ability.
  • Significant divergence in floral, developmental, and life-history traits was observed between treatments.
  • Anther-stigma separation and autogamous seed set showed pronounced treatment effects.
  • Allele frequency changes at two chromosomal polymorphisms were dramatic in the no-pollinator group, impacting pollen viability.

Conclusions:

  • Pollinator loss can rapidly induce mating system evolution, favoring self-fertilization in plants.
  • The observed phenotypic and genetic changes support a sequential model for the evolution of the selfing syndrome in angiosperms.
  • This study provides direct evidence for rapid evolutionary adaptation in response to ecological change.