Research Grant
[Cite as https://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP140103357]Researchers: Dr Ryan Phillips (Chief Investigator) , Siegfried L. Krauss (Partner Investigator) , Stephen Hopper (Chief Investigator-Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award )
Brief description The evolution and conservation consequences of promiscuity in plants pollinated by vertebrates. Pollen dispersal between plants, predominantly by insects and wind, is characteristically restricted to nearest neighbours. Recent molecular analysis of paternity for a Banksia pollinated by nectar-feeding birds showed atypical pollen dispersal, with high multiple paternity, wide outcrossing and local panmixis. With much of the Australian flora also bird-pollinated, our initial results have potentially wide and novel significance. This project proposes to test the generality of our observations for other vertebrate-pollinated species, and to test the conservation and evolutionary consequences of reduced pollen dispersal caused by habitat fragmentation and declining pollinators for a pollination paradigm facilitating promiscuity.
Funding Amount $935,000
Funding Scheme Discovery Projects
- PURL : https://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP140103357
- ARC : DP140103357