Meta-analysis reveals severe pollen limitation for the flowering plants growing in East Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains regi
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ESEARCH ARTICLE
BMC Ecology Open Access
Meta‑analysis reveals severe pollen limitation for the flowering plants growing in East Himalaya‑Hengduan Mountains region Xianfeng Jiang1* and Yanping Xie2
Abstract Background: Pollen limitation occurs widely and has an important effect on flowering plants. The East HimalayaHengduan Mountains region is a global biodiversity hotspot. However, to our knowledge, no study has synthetically assessed the degree of pollen limitation in this area. The present study aims to reveal the degree of pollen limitation for the flowering plants growing on East Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains and to test whether the reproductive features or the elevation is closely correlated with the degree of pollen limitation in this area. Results: We complied data from 76 studies, which included 96 species and 108 independent data records. We found that the flowering plants in this area undergo severe pollen limitation [overall Hedges’ d = 2.004, with a 95% confidence interval (1.3264, 2.6743)] that is much higher than that of the flowering plants growing in many other regions around the world. The degree of pollen limitation was tested to determine the correlation with the capacity for autonomous self-reproduction and with the pollination pattern (generalized vs. specialized pollination) of plants. In addition, we found a clear relationship between elevation and the degree of pollen limitation, which indicates that plants might undergo more severe pollen limitation in relatively high places. Conclusions: This paper is the first to address the severe pollen limitation of the flowering plants growing in East Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains region. Moreover, we reveal the positive correlation between elevation and the degree of pollen limitation. Keywords: Pollen limitation, Flowering plants, Meta-analysis, Eastern himalaya, Hengduan mountain Background Pollen limitation widely occurs and has been an essential clue for determining whether flowering plants undergo limitation from pollination services in natural habitats [1, 2]. Flowering plants, especially those obligately cross-fertilized, strongly rely on external pollination services for their sexual reproduction [3, 4]. On one hand, pollen limitation exerts an essential selection on plants [5–7]. Within a life-history cycle, severe pollen limitation *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 College of Agriculture and Bioscience, Dali University, Dali 671003, Yunnan, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
during a flowering season would cause the failure of sexual reproduction in a given year, which might therefore cause reproductive resources discounting for plants [8]. Over the long term, plants might evolve favorable strategies that ensure their reproductive success, i.e., autonomous self-reproduction, clonal growth or apomixis, if they undergo long-term pollen limitation [9]. On the other hand, the pollination services in nature are largely provided by pollinators (bees, butterflies, birds, etc.) [4]; thus, the
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