Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2025
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V14
Höfundar / Authors: Judith Trunschke
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: University of Iceland
Kynnir / Presenter: Judith Trunschke
As climate change causes earlier flowering in many plant species, it can disrupt the temporal overlap between plants and their pollinators, which are often tightly synchronized. Similarly, phenotypes may drastically respond to climatic conditions shifting population phenotypic trait ranges and associated fitness landscapes. How climate-driven changes in flowering phenology and morphological traits affect the interactions between plants and their pollinators, and the evolutionary responses to it, is an urgent question in times of global change. I investigate interannual variation in phenology, phenotypes and female reproductive fitness in one population of the dimorphic early spring-flowering orchid Dactylorhiza sambucina, that is pollinated by newly emerging bumblebee queens. By quantifying phenotypic selection on flowering start and four morphological characters (plant height, flower number, flower size, spur length), I link variation in phenology, phenotypes and fitness to the patterns of selection and to local climate conditions, such as temperature and precipitation. Ultimately, this study significantly forwards our understanding of the role of climate-driven shifts in phenological events and key morphological characters in influencing patterns of selection, and the possibility of rapid evolutionary adaptation — an understudied alternative response to migration and extinction scenarios of climate change.