Pollinator's sex-specific visiting preference mediates competition and
coexistence of co-flowering plants
Abstract
Male and female pollinators often exhibit sex-specific preferences for
visiting different flowers. Recent studies have shown that these
preferences play an important role in shaping the network structure of
pollination mutualism, but little is known about how they can mediate
plant-plant interactions and population dynamics of competing plants.
Inter-plant competition occurs not only directly (e.g. for nutrients,
water, and habitats) but also indirectly through pollination. The
ecological consequences of sex-specific pollination can be complex. For
example, a plant favoured by female pollinators contributes to the
production of male pollinators, who may prefer visiting other competing
plants and intensify the negative effects of inter-plant competition.
Here, we analysed a simple two-plant-one-pollinator model with the sex
structure of the pollinator. We observed that (i) sex-specific
pollination can have complex consequences for inter-plant competition
and coexistence (e.g. the occurrence of non-trivial alternative stable
states in which one plant excludes or coexists with the other depending
on the initial conditions), (ii) male and female pollinators have
distinct ecological consequences because female pollinators have a
demographic impact owing to reproduction, and (iii) plants are likely to
coexist when male and female pollinators prefer different plants. These
results suggest that sex-specific pollination is crucial for competition
and coexistence of co-flowering plants. Future, pollination research
therefore should more explicitly consider the sex-specific behaviour of
pollinating animals.