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

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Macroevolution of the plant-hummingbird pollination system.

Elisa Barreto¹, Mannfred M A Boehm², Ezgi Ogutcen³

¹Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, Birmensdorf, 8903, Switzerland.

Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society

|May 5, 2024

Summary

This review explores how hummingbird pollination impacts plant evolution and diversification. It highlights that while some plants diversify with hummingbirds, others do not, suggesting complex coevolutionary dynamics.

Keywords:

coevolution foraging behaviour mutualism pollination syndrome pollinator shifts specialization trait evolution trait matching

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Botany

Background:

Plant-hummingbird interactions are a classic example of coevolution, with plants relying on hummingbirds for pollination and hummingbirds depending on nectar for food.
Coevolution involves mutualistic species influencing each other's evolutionary trajectory.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the macroevolutionary consequences of plant-hummingbird interactions.
To synthesize studies on the origins and dynamics of hummingbird pollination across angiosperm clades.
To identify factors influencing shifts to and from hummingbird pollination.

Main Methods:

Literature synthesis of prior studies on plant-hummingbird pollination.
Analysis of the timing of hummingbird diversification relative to pollinated plant clades.
Examination of diversification rates in plant lineages associated with hummingbirds.

Main Results:

Hummingbird pollination has occurred across diverse angiosperm clades, sometimes involving shifts from insect, bat, or passerine pollination.
The diversification of hummingbirds and their associated plants often coincides, suggesting co-diversification.
The impact of hummingbirds on plant diversification is variable, with some lineages showing increased rates and others showing no change or decrease.

Conclusions:

Shifts to and from hummingbird pollination are complex and influenced by factors beyond the interaction itself, such as climate and isolation.
Future research should investigate the mechanisms and contexts of hummingbird influence on plant evolution, including species-level traits and behaviors.
Macroevolutionary studies should incorporate species-level interaction data to better understand the coevolutionary signals of plant-hummingbird mutualism.