Resolving pollination paradoxes: Bridging theory and empirical observations to understand pollination ecology and evolution

Abstract

Animal‐mediated pollination underpins the sexual reproduction of an estimated 230,000 flowering‐plant species and involves at least 300,000 florivorous animals. Yet we lack a broad, community‐level synthesis of how variation in animal pollination shapes both ecosystem function and species assemblages. Here, I review key challenges and opportunities in pollination ecology, introduce and examine ‘paradoxes’ of pollination biology, and argue that much can be gained from examining and discussing contradictions in the pollination literature. I use community ecological theory to explore the role of pollination in plant community assembly and vice versa in three Arctic sites (Chapter I). I then discuss how pollination and frequency-dependent effects arising from rarity impact plant diversification by limiting the establishment of new polyploid populations (Chapter II and III). I then discuss how the theoretical framework for understanding sexual selection in hermaphroditic plants can develop in the light of community ecological theory (Chapter IV). In the last two chapters, I focus on how implementing theoretical frameworks in pollination ecology can improve our understanding of threats from global change. Specifically, I show that implementing a more mechanistic framework can improve predictions of how pollinators contribute to ecosystem services, which impacts how both agricultural and natural ecosystems will be influenced by pollinator decline (Chapter V). Finally I show that understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of plant reproduction and how it is associated with plant size is crucial for understanding the consequences of shifting flower phenology (Chapter VI). I suggest that a conceptual synthesis in pollination biology is necessary to advance our understanding of how pollination contributes to the maintenance of natural ecosystems, how it contributes to society, and how pollination may be altered due to anthropogenic activities.