Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. Overall, our results suggest that edge effects are not as strong as is commonly assumed, and that different plant reproduction parameters respond to spatial location independently.Įdge effects Mimulus gene dispersal mate diversity monkeyflower paternity pollination seed set siring success spatial location. This translated into 40 % greater pollen-mediated gene dispersal for edge than for interior plants. However, we found strong differences in pollinator behaviour based on plant location, including 15 % lower per flower visitation rates and substantially longer interplant moves for edge plants. We found no significant differences between edge and interior plants in the number of seeds sired, mothered or the number of sires per fruit. We observed foraging patterns of pollinating bumblebees and used paternity analysis to quantify male and female reproductive success and mate diversity for plants on the edge versus interior. interior) on siring success, seed production, pollinator foraging patterns and pollen-mediated gene dispersal, we established a square experimental array of 49 Mimulus ringens (monkeyflower) plants. Edge effect -An edge is the boundary or interface between two biological communities or between different landscape elements. Forest edges could provide one or more important partial habitats for different bee species in agricultural landscapes, in particular when associated with a mass-flowering crop such as OSR (Le Feon et al. To explore the effects of spatial location (edge vs. In this study, we focused on the effect of distance to forest edge on bee assemblages in OSR ecosystems. Additionally, plants that rely on pollinators may be particularly vulnerable to edge effects if those pollinators exhibit restricted foraging and pollen carryover is limited. For example, many flowering plant populations have small, linear or irregular shapes that increase the proportion of plants on the edge, which may reduce mating opportunities through both male and female function. In this review, we identify four fundamental. However, making sense of the diverse patterns and extensive variability reported in the literature has been difficult because there has been no unifying conceptual framework to guide research. Researchers have long assumed that plant spatial location influences plant reproductive success and pollinator foraging behaviour. Abstract Edge effects have been studied for decades because they are a key component to understanding how landscape structure influences habitat quality.

Ecotone edge effects landscape