Plant-Insect Phenology and Pollination

Abstract

Climate change has been known to impact plant pollination by changing flowering phenology and by distressing the activity of pollinators, e.g. flight (Abrol 2012). Similarly, phenological decoupling of plant–pollinator interactions (Settele et al. 2016) have been reported. Specifically, plants and insects have different responses to changing temperature, creating temporal (phenological) and spatial (distributional) disparities that cause problems at the population level (Reddy et al. 2013). Mismatches could impact plants by impairing decreased insect visitation that means less pollen deposition, whereas pollinators could face reduced food availability (Reddy et al. 2013). However, in some circumstances, pollinator–plant synchrony does not cause mismatches, due to generalist pollinator species keeping pace with changes in forage-plant flowering by switching between host plants (Fig. 5.1) (Settele et al. 2016). Animal biology and ecology associated with pollination i.e. population, reproductive aspects, and activity - flight, etc., are essential for understanding the impacts manifested by climate change. Relatively very little research has been conducted on the physiology of many crucial pollinators influenced by warming temperatures (Scaven and Rafferty 2013). This is evident in many tropical regions worldwide, where, animal pollinators comprise much more species and interactions, when compared to temperate conditions (Figs. 1.2 and 5.2).