Surviving in the absence of flowers: do nectar yeasts rely on overwintering bumblebee queens to complete their annual life cycle?

Floral nectar represents an ephemeral habitat that is restricted in time and space to zoophilous flowering vegetation. To survive in these habitats, nectar-inhabiting microorganisms rely on animal vectors to disperse from one flower to the next. However, it remains unclear how nectar yeasts persist when flowers and nectar cease to be present.

Effects of agricultural fungicides on microorganisms associated with floral nectar: susceptibility assays and field experiments.

Pesticides have become an inseparable element of agricultural intensification. While the direct impact of pesticides on non-target organisms, such as pollinators, has recently received much attention, less consideration has been given to the microorganisms that are associated with them. Specialist yeasts and bacteria are known to commonly inhabit floral nectar and change its chemical characteristics in numerous ways, possibly influencing pollinator attraction.

Microbial diversity in the floral nectar of Linaria vulgaris along an urbanization gradient.

Background: Microbes are common inhabitants of floral nectar and are capable of influencing plant-pollinator interactions. All studies so far investigated microbial communities in floral nectar in plant populations that were located in natural environments, but nothing is known about these communities in nectar of plants inhabiting urban environments. However, at least some microbes are vectored into floral nectar by pollinators, and because urbanization can have a profound impact on pollinator communities and plant-pollinator interactions, it can be expected that it affects nectar microbes as well.