Shifts among functional pollinator groups are commonly regarded as sources of floral morphological diversity (disparity) through the formation of distinct pollination syndromes. While pollination syndromes may be used for predicting pollinators, their predictive accuracy remains debated, and they are rarely used to test whether floral disparity is indeed associated with pollinator shifts. We apply classification models trained and validated on 44 functional floral traits across 252 species with empirical pollinator observations and then use the validated models to predict pollinators for 159 species lacking observations. In addition, we employ multivariate statistics and phylogenetic comparative analyses to test whether pollinator shifts are the main source of floral disparity in Melastomataceae. We find strong support for four well-differentiated pollination syndromes ('buzz-bee', 'nectar-foraging vertebrate', 'food-body-foraging vertebrate', 'generalist'). While pollinator shifts add significantly to floral disparity, we find that the most species-rich 'buzz-bee' pollination syndrome is most disparate, indicating that high floral disparity may evolve without pollinator shifts. Also, relatively species-poor clades and geographic areas contributed substantially to total disparity. Finally, our results show that machine-learning approaches are a powerful tool for evaluating the predictive accuracy of the pollination syndrome concept as well as for predicting pollinators where observations are missing.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.19735 | DOI Listing |
J Clin Med
November 2024
Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA.
Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness around the world. Black individuals are two times more likely to be diagnosed with glaucoma compared to White individuals. In 2019, the prevalence of glaucoma in Monroe County was highest amongst older individuals aged 85 and non-Hispanic Blacks.
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December 2024
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Plant Conservation and Restoration Ecology in Karst Terrain Guangxi Institute of Botany, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chinese Academy of Sciences Guilin Guangxi China.
The genus is renowned for its remarkably diverse floral morphology, exhibiting a high level of disparity compared to most genera within Gesneriaceae. In this study, we present a detailed description and illustration of T. Ding & B.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNew Phytol
November 2024
School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK.
Curr Res Food Sci
October 2024
Institute of Pomology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Horticultural Crop Genetic Improvement, Nanjing, 210014, PR China.
Yellow- and white-fleshed peach fruits are favored for their diverse flesh colors. While carotenoid accumulation primarily dictates flesh color differences, the influence of volatile compounds on their aromas remains largely unexplored. Here, multiple analytical methods including odor importance assessment, hierarchical clustering, and aroma characterization analysis were employed to investigate volatile compositions and aroma characteristics of the two types of peach, as well as the offspring with identical parentage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biometeorol
November 2024
School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Burnley, Victoria, 3121, Australia.
In an era where global climate change is shifting plant phenology, global meta-analyses of multiple species are required more than ever. Common language or references for enhanced data compatibility are key for such analyses. Although the Plant Phenology Ontology (PPO) addresses this challenge, it does not capture several relevant reproductive structures that are critical in species with long reproductive cycles, like many Eucalyptus species.
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