Predicting the consequences of plant spacing and biased movement for pollen dispersal by honey bees

Easily measured characteristics of pollinator movement and pollen deposition can be used to build models that generate quantitative predictions about pollen dispersal distance. Honey bees Apis mellifera foraged on one-dimensional arrays of mustard plants Brassica campestris. Individual honeybees have a biased direction of movement and alter their movement patterns in response to plant spacing. Biased movement results in an increase in the expected pollen dispersal distance, and predicted dispersal distance increased with increasing interplant distance. Models of pollen spatial dynamics based on individual pollinator behavior thus can be used to explore the consequences of plant spatial arrangement for gene flow in plant populations. -from Author

Duke Scholars

Author William F. Morris Biology