Waiting for the snow to melt…
Many plants have evolved nutrient rewards to attract pollinators to flowers, but most research has focused on the sugar content of floral nectar resources. Concentrations of sodium in floral nectar (a micronutrient in low concentrations in nectar) can vary substantially both among and within co-occurring species. Sodium concentrations in floral nectar might play an important and underappreciated role in plant-pollinator interactions, especially because many animals, including pollinators, are sodium-limited in nature. Yet, the consequences of variation in sodium concentrations in floral nectar have gone largely unexplored. Here, we investigate whether enriching floral nectar with sodium influences the composition, diversity, and abundance of pollinator interactions. We experimentally enriched sodium concentrations in four plant species in a subalpine meadow in Colorado, USA. We found that flowers with sodium-enriched nectar received more visits from a greater diversity of pollinator visitors throughout the season. Each pollinator species foraged more frequently on flowers enriched with sodium and showed evidence of other changes to pollinator foraging behavior, including greater dietary evenness. These findings are consistent with the 'salty nectar hypothesis,' providing evidence for the importance of sodium limitation in pollinators and suggesting that even small nectar constituents can shape plant-pollinator interactions.
Knowledge graph centered on Pollinator visitation on Na-enriched plants in a s with 24 nodes and 115 connections. Top connected: Bombus, Delphinium, Asteraceae, plant-pollinator mutualism, Erigeron.
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