Insect pollination and experimental warming in the High Arctic

• Main Author: Robinson, Samuel Victor Joseph
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2014
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/46539

As climate change causes retreats in Arctic glaciers, it is important to understand the mechanics of growth and community change in Arctic plant communities. Arctic plants have been shown to respond to observed and experimental changes in temperature by altering their reproductive strategies, growth, and phenology. Researchers have used open-top chambers (OTCs) to experimentally alter the near-surface air temperatures of tundra plant communities over long periods of time, but these devices may exclude insect pollinators to flowers during crucial periods of pollen reception. Insect pollination in the context of OTCs and Arctic plants is therefore important to understand, but has been poorly researched. I altered pollination of Salix arctica, Dryas integrifolia, and Papaver radicatum inside and outside of OTCs in a High Arctic shrub community, and conducted targeted insect netting to understand the dynamics of the visiting insect community. I also conducted bowl trapping inside and outside of OTCs to gauge their effect on insect availability to receptive flowers. OTCs altered the timing of flowering in Arctic plants, and significantly reduced the availability of pollinators to available flowers. However, I found that while both warming and pollination can alter flower and seed production in the study species, pollination is largely independent of OTC warming. Early-flowering species have the potential to be most affected by OTC-induced insect exclusion. The most common visiting insects were flies of the families Syrphidae and Muscidae, with occasional bumblebees (Bombus polaris). Papaver radicatum was by far the most heavily-visited flower, and I showed that the Syrphidae visit the flower preferentially at low temperatures, likely for warmth as well as pollen. I discuss these results in context with the current literature on Arctic plant and insect communities, and make recommendations for future research.