Adaptive Foraging of Pollinators Can Promote Pollination of a Rare Plant Species

Most pollinators have the foraging flexibility to visit a wide variety of plant species. Yet few studies of pollinator-mediated processes in plants have considered the effects of variation in individual foraging patterns on plant reproductive success. In this study, we use an individual-based model of pollinator foraging economics to predict how visitation rates and pollination success of two coflowering plant species change with their frequency (relative abundance). Whereas previous studies suggested that adaptive foraging of pollinators always favors pollination of abundant plant species (positive frequency dependence), here we show that under certain conditions the per capita pollination success of a rare plant species can exceed that of a more abundant species. Specifically, when the overall flower density is sufficiently high and pollinators' perception ranges are sufficiently large, animals with limited memory of previously encountered rewards forage in a way that favors pollination of the rarer plant species. Moreover, even with perfectly informed foragers, a rare plant species benefits more from offering a higher floral reward than a more abundant species. Our results show that adaptive foraging of individual pollinators can have important implications for plant community dynamics and the persistence of rare plant species.