PATTERNS AND PROCESSES IN NOCTURNAL AND CREPUSCULAR POLLINATION SERVICES

Night, dawn, and dusk have abiotic features that differ from the day. Illumination, wind speeds, turbulence, and temperatures are lower while humidity may be higher at night. Nocturnal pollination occurred in 30% of angiosperm families across 68% of orders, 97% of families with C₃, two-thirds of fam...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Quarterly review of biology 2016-12, Vol.91 (4), p.389-418
Main Authors: Borges, Renee M., Somanathan, Hema, Kelber, Almut
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abiotic stress
Adaptation, Physiological
Animals
Aridity
Biologi
Biological Sciences
Biology
Circadian Rhythm
Climate
Crassulacean acid metabolism
Crepuscular pollination
Dawn
Dusk
Ecology
Ecosystem
Ekologi
Evapotranspiration
Flight, Animal
Flowers
Flowers - physiology
Humidity
Insecta - classification
Insecta - physiology
Magnoliopsida - classification
Magnoliopsida - physiology
Metabolism
Natural Sciences
Naturvetenskap
Nocturnal pollination network
Photoperiod
Photosynthesis
Plant Nectar - physiology
Pollen - physiology
Pollination
Pollinators
Time Factors
Water loss
Water stress
Wind speed
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Summary:Night, dawn, and dusk have abiotic features that differ from the day. Illumination, wind speeds, turbulence, and temperatures are lower while humidity may be higher at night. Nocturnal pollination occurred in 30% of angiosperm families across 68% of orders, 97% of families with C₃, two-thirds of families with crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), and 71% dicot families with C₄ photosynthesis. Despite its widespread occurence, nocturnal pollination occurs in more families with xerophytic adaptations than helophytes or mesophytes, suggesting that nocturnal flowering is primarily an adaptation to water stress since flowering is a water-intensive process. We propose the arid or water stress hypothesis for nocturnal flowering suggesting that plants facing water stress in a habitat (e.g., deserts) or a habitat stratum (e.g., upper canopy for epiphytes) gain a selective advantage by nocturnal flowering by reducing water loss through evapotranspiration, leading to larger flowers that provide more nectar or other resources, to support pollinators with higher rewards. Contrary to the wide taxonomic occurrence of nocturnal flowering, few animal taxa serve as nocturnal pollinators. We discuss the sensory and physiological abilities that enable pollinator movement, navigation, and detection of flowers within the nocturnal temporal niche and present a unified framework for investigation of nocturnal flowering and pollination.
ISSN:0033-5770
1539-7718
DOI:10.1086/689481