Plant-Pollinator Interactions: Evolutionary and Ecosystem Services Perspectives

Plants and their pollinators have coevolved for over 100 million years and so it is not surprising that their interactions have been models for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes. Furthermore, since plant reproduction is often dependent on pollinators, pollinators provide critical ecosystem services for about 35% of the world’s crop production. Flowers represent a convergence of adaptive traits, yet how these trait combinations evolve or their potential consequences for diversification has not been well studied. Evidence of pollinator mediated multivariate selection on floral traits and consequences for clade diversification will be presented. Using a model system of pollinator determinants of oil crop yield, the importance of plant-pollinator interactions from an ecosystem services perspectives will then be presented. Finally, future work focused on policy initiatives will be discussed.

****** Plant Ecology Seminar Series ******

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