Pollination: An Integrating Factor of Biocenoses

1991

A survey is given of the ecological constraints which affect the process of pollen transfer — and hence the gene flow — within a biocenosis. Wind pollination (anemophily) plays a dominant role in species-poor communities only. The quantity of zoophilous species increases equator-ward to up to 100 % and so does the degree of integration in animal-plant interactions. Biotic pollination is pinpointed. Manifoldness and specifity of methods reduce pollen waste and mispollinations. Saturated ecosystems dispose of a complete set of pollination syndromes and the respective pollinator guilds, narrow niche widths, a high percentage of eutropic flowers, shorter flowering times, and a temporal and spat…