62
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Colour as a backup for scent in the presence of olfactory noise: testing the efficacy backup hypothesis using bumblebees ( Bombus terrestris)

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          The majority of floral displays simultaneously broadcast signals from multiple sensory modalities, but these multimodal displays come at both a metabolic cost and an increased conspicuousness to floral antagonists. Why then do plants invest in these costly multimodal displays? The efficacy backup hypothesis suggests that individual signal components act as a backup for others in the presence of environmental variability. Here, we test the efficacy backup hypothesis by investigating the ability of bumblebees to differentiate between sets of artificial flowers in the presence of either chemical interference or high wind speeds, both of which have the potential to impede the transmission of olfactory signals. We found that both chemical interference and high wind speeds negatively affected forager learning times, but these effects were mitigated in the presence of a visual signal component. Our results suggest that visual signals can act as a backup for olfactory signals in the presence of chemical interference and high wind speeds, and support the efficacy backup hypothesis as an explanation for the evolution of multimodal floral displays.

          Related collections

          Most cited references79

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Biosynthesis, function and metabolic engineering of plant volatile organic compounds.

          Plants synthesize an amazing diversity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that facilitate interactions with their environment, from attracting pollinators and seed dispersers to protecting themselves from pathogens, parasites and herbivores. Recent progress in -omics technologies resulted in the isolation of genes encoding enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of many volatiles and contributed to our understanding of regulatory mechanisms involved in VOC formation. In this review, we largely focus on the biosynthesis and regulation of plant volatiles, the involvement of floral volatiles in plant reproduction as well as their contribution to plant biodiversity and applications in agriculture via crop-pollinator interactions. In addition, metabolic engineering approaches for both the improvement of plant defense and pollinator attraction are discussed in light of methodological constraints and ecological complications that limit the transition of crops with modified volatile profiles from research laboratories to real-world implementation. © 2013 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2013 New Phytologist Trust.
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Article: not found

            Complex signal function: developing a framework of testable hypotheses

              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Global trends in wind speed and wave height.

              Studies of climate change typically consider measurements or predictions of temperature over extended periods of time. Climate, however, is much more than temperature. Over the oceans, changes in wind speed and the surface gravity waves generated by such winds play an important role. We used a 23-year database of calibrated and validated satellite altimeter measurements to investigate global changes in oceanic wind speed and wave height over this period. We find a general global trend of increasing values of wind speed and, to a lesser degree, wave height, over this period. The rate of increase is greater for extreme events as compared to the mean condition.

                Author and article information

                Journal
                R Soc Open Sci
                R Soc Open Sci
                RSOS
                royopensci
                Royal Society Open Science
                The Royal Society Publishing
                2054-5703
                November 2017
                29 November 2017
                29 November 2017
                : 4
                : 11
                : 170996
                Affiliations
                School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol , Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
                Author notes
                Author for correspondence: David A. Lawson e-mail: david.lawson@ 123456bristol.ac.uk

                Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3933130.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0060-6830
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7400-005X
                Article
                rsos170996
                10.1098/rsos.170996
                5717666
                29291092
                813bada3-dfc8-46c8-a218-fa8d40c55318
                © 2017 The Authors.

                Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 27 July 2017
                : 26 October 2017
                Funding
                Funded by: H2020 European Research Council, http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010663;
                Award ID: 260920
                Funded by: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000268;
                Award ID: BB/M002780/1
                Categories
                1001
                14
                60
                204
                Biology (Whole Organism)
                Research Article
                Custom metadata
                November, 2017

                floral displays,multimodality,signalling,pollination,floral scent

                Comments

                Comment on this article

                Related Documents Log