Speaker
Description
The dispersal potential of pollen influences gene flow within and between plant populations impacting on processes such as local adaptation, speciation and long-term survival of metapopulations. However, our knowledge on physiological trade-offs (e.g. pollen size, pollen density, vegetative resources, etc.) that impact pollen dispersal are yet limited, since conventional dispersal classification systems (i.e. pollination syndromes) consider mainly combinations of floral characteristics that assign species to either being dispersed by means of a certain vector (e.g. wind) or not. We analyzed imaging flow cytometry pollen features of >500,000 single pollen grains of >100 anemophilous species in combination with literature data of vegetative plant traits and characterize trade-offs shaping pollen traits in relation to plant physiology, growth form and environmental conditions that in combination determine the pollen dispersal distance of a given species. By revealing a mechanistic understanding of these trade-offs, our framework can help to better understand pollen dispersal and consequences of global threads on biodiversity for example by habitat fragmentation.
| Status Group | Postdoctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| Poster Presentation Option | No, I prefer to present only as a talk. |
