scholarly journals Modelling the effects of the repellent scent marks of pollinators on their foraging efficiency and the plant-pollinator community

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0256929
Author(s):  
Elise Verrier ◽  
Emmanuelle Baudry ◽  
Carmen Bessa-Gomes

Pollinator insects forage in complex and unpredictable resource landscapes, often using social information from congeneric individuals to acquire knowledge about their environment. It has long been recognized that this process allows them to exploit floral resources more efficiently and thus increase individual fitness. However, by creating correlations between the behaviors of pollinators within a population, this could also indirectly influence the entire plant-pollinator community. One type of social information used by pollinators is the scent mark left on the corolla of flowers by previous visitors, which can be used as a cue to avoid recently depleted resources. We developed a spatially explicit agent-based model to examine the effects, at both individual and community levels, of pollinators using these scent marks. The model simulates a population of pollinators foraging on flowers in a continuous 2D space in which we can vary the density of pollinators. We showed that the use of scent marks as a source of information significantly increased the foraging efficiency of pollinators except when competition between pollinators was very low. At the community level, this also resulted in a marked homogenization between floral resources within the landscape: in the absence of scent marks, the coefficient of variation of the remaining nectar quantity per flower strongly increased with greater pollinator competition, but it remained low at all levels of competition when scent marks were used by the pollinators. Finally, the use of scent marks markedly decreased the number of pollinator flower visits, especially at high levels of pollinator competition, which can potentially reduce the pollination service.

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 150638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair M. Senior ◽  
Mathieu Lihoreau ◽  
Michael A. Charleston ◽  
Jerome Buhl ◽  
David Raubenheimer ◽  
...  

Collective foraging, based on positive feedback and quorum responses, is believed to improve the foraging efficiency of animals. Nutritional models suggest that social information transfer increases the ability of foragers with closely aligned nutritional needs to find nutrients and maintain a balanced diet. However, whether or not collective foraging is adaptive in a heterogeneous group composed of individuals with differing nutritional needs is virtually unexplored. Here we develop an evolutionary agent-based model using concepts of nutritional ecology to address this knowledge gap. Our aim was to evaluate how collective foraging, mediated by social retention on foods, can improve nutrient balancing in individuals with different requirements. The model suggests that in groups where inter-individual nutritional needs are unimodally distributed, high levels of collective foraging yield optimal individual fitness by reducing search times that result from moving between nutritionally imbalanced foods. However, where nutritional needs are highly bimodal (e.g. where the requirements of males and females differ) collective foraging is selected against, leading to group fission. In this case, additional mechanisms such as assortative interactions can coevolve to allow collective foraging by subgroups of individuals with aligned requirements. Our findings indicate that collective foraging is an efficient strategy for nutrient regulation in animals inhabiting complex nutritional environments and exhibiting a range of social forms.


2019 ◽  
Vol Volume 27 - 2017 - Special... ◽  
Author(s):  
Abir Gorrab ◽  
Ferihane Kboubi ◽  
Henda Ghézala

The explosion of web 2.0 and social networks has created an enormous and rewarding source of information that has motivated researchers in different fields to exploit it. Our work revolves around the issue of access and identification of social information and their use in building a user profile enriched with a social dimension, and operating in a process of personalization and recommendation. We study several approaches of Social IR (Information Retrieval), distinguished by the type of incorporated social information. We also study various social recommendation approaches classified by the type of recommendation. We then present a study of techniques for modeling the social user profile dimension, followed by a critical discussion. Thus, we propose our social recommendation approach integrating an advanced social user profile model. L’explosion du web 2.0 et des réseaux sociaux a crée une source d’information énorme et enrichissante qui a motivé les chercheurs dans différents domaines à l’exploiter. Notre travail s’articule autour de la problématique d’accès et d’identification des informations sociales et leur exploitation dans la construction d’un profil utilisateur enrichi d’une dimension sociale, et son exploitation dans un processus de personnalisation et de recommandation. Nous étudions différentes approches sociales de RI (Recherche d’Information), distinguées par le type d’informations sociales incorporées. Nous étudions également diverses approches de recommandation sociale classées par le type de recommandation. Nous exposons ensuite une étude des techniques de modélisation de la dimension sociale du profil utilisateur, suivie par une discussion critique. Ainsi, nous présentons notre approche de recommandation sociale proposée intégrant un modèle avancé de profil utilisateur social.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. LaManna ◽  
Laura A. Burkle ◽  
R. Travis Belote ◽  
Jonathan A. Myers

Koedoe ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kruger ◽  
J. Du P. Bothma ◽  
J.M. Kruger

Both the male and the female klipspringer scent-mark their ranges. A pair of pre-orbital glands below the eyes produces the scent. The secretion is a sticky, substance that is deposited on a suitable twig. Klipspringer scent marks were surveyed in a specific klipspringer range in the Kruger National Park with the use of a strip transect method. The results showed that klipspringer in the Kruger National Park scent-mark more frequently on the boundaries of their ranges and also more on those sides where there is another resident klipspringer group.


2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 418-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria L. Scaven ◽  
Nicole E. Rafferty

Abstract Growing concern about the influence of climate change on flowering plants, pollinators, and the mutualistic interactions between them has led to a recent surge in research. Much of this research has addressed the consequences of warming for phenological and distributional shifts. In contrast, relatively little is known about the physiological responses of plants and insect pollinators to climate warming and, in particular, how these responses might affect plant-pollinator interactions. Here, we summarize the direct physiological effects of temperature on flowering plants and pollinating insects to highlight ways in which plant and pollinator responses could affect floral resources for pollinators, and pollination success for plants, respectively. We also consider the overall effects of these responses on plant-pollinator interaction networks. Plant responses to warming, which include altered flower, nectar, and pollen production, could modify floral resource availability and reproductive output of pollinating insects. Similarly, pollinator responses, such as altered foraging activity, body size, and life span, could affect patterns of pollen flow and pollination success of flowering plants. As a result, network structure could be altered as interactions are gained and lost, weakened and strengthened, even without the gain or loss of species or temporal overlap. Future research that addresses not only how plant and pollinator physiology are affected by warming but also how responses scale up to affect interactions and networks should allow us to better understand and predict the effects of climate change on this important ecosystem service.


Behaviour ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 138 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 1319-1336 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.G. Mech ◽  
M.H. Ferkin ◽  

AbstractMost terrestrial mammals deposit scent marks to communicate with conspecifics. We examined the scent marking behaviour of meadow voles and prairie voles, species with different mating systems and social organizations, to determine whether voles scent mark according to the 'targeting' response, the 'avoidance' response, or the 'shotgun' response. The targeting response occurs when the second scent donor deposits more of its scent marks in an area marked by the first scent donor than in an unscented area. The avoidance response occurs when the second scent donor deposits more of its scent marks in an unscented area than in an area marked by the first scent donor. The shotgun response occurs when the second scent donor deposits a similar number of its scent marks in an area containing scent marks of a conspecific and in an area containing no conspecific scent marks. We allowed voles simultaneous access to an arena containing two arms: one of the arms was scented by a conspecific and the other arm was unscented. We recorded the number of marks deposited by the voles in each arm and the amount of time they spent investigating marks deposited previously in the scented arm. Our data provide no support for the avoidance response, but provide support for the shotgun response and the target response. Species and sex differences in the scent marking behaviours of voles when they encounter the scent marks of conspecifics are discussed within the framework that scent marking responses depend on the voles' social organization and mating system, and that these responses may reflect the tactics males and females use to attract mates and compete with same-sex conspecifics.


2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1785) ◽  
pp. 20133174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika H. Dawson ◽  
Lars Chittka

Avoiding predation is one of the most important challenges that an animal faces. Several anti-predation behaviours can be employed, yet simply using the presence of conspecifics can be a good signal of safety in an environment with potential predation hazards. Here, we show, for the first time, that past experience of predation causes bumblebees ( Bombus terrestris ) to aggregate with conspecifics, facilitating the identification of safe foraging patches. Bees were trained to differentiate between flowers that harboured predators and flowers that were predator free. When test subjects were subsequently presented solely with the previously predator-infested flower species, there was a significant preference to only land on flowers occupied by other feeding conspecifics. Yet, when safe flowers were made available to subjects previously entrained to discriminate safe from predator-occupied flowers, subjects ignored other bees and the social information potentially provided by them, demonstrating that attraction towards conspecifics is confined to dangerous situations. Our findings demonstrate a previously unknown social interaction in pollinators which may have important implications for plant–pollinator interactions.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document