Effect of Extreme Climatic Events on Plant-Pollinator Interactions in Blueberry

Abstract

Pollination is a key ecosystem service that is, however, under threat due to multiple environmental pressures, such as climate change, compromising crop production. The main goal of this study was to investigate how extreme events due to climate change affect flower traits and plant-pollinator interactions, and how this impacts fruit production, using the insect-dependent blueberry crop as study system. For this, we set up a controlled pot experiment using two blueberry cultivars (Bluecrop and Duke). At the time of bud swelling, half of the plants (12 per cultivar) were placed for two weeks in a glasshouse under stress conditions (no water and increased temperature), while the other half remained outdoors and watered. At flowering, flower traits were measured, and plants were exposed to pollinators; the identity of pollinators visiting blueberry flowers was registered as well as their behavior and the number of flowers visited. Later, mature fruits were randomly collected and weighed individually. Results showed that in our study site the most frequent visitor of blueberry flowers was Anthophora plumipes (Fabricius, 1781). Results also showed that stress conditions did not affect flower traits and insect pollinator visitation rates, regardless of blueberry cultivar, but affected insect preferences for Bluecrop cultivar, with A. plumipes preferring control over stressed plants. However, for Duke cultivar, control plants produced heavier fruits than plants under stress conditions. Our study provides some insights into the effects of climate changes on plant-pollinator interactions, but further research is necessary to better understand the impacts of climate change on plant-pollinator interactions and how this may impact food production.