Automated Author Profile

Ewome, Francis

Bokwango, Buea, Southwest Region, Cameroon

Current S-Index

2.2

Sum of Dataset Indices for all datasets

Average Dataset Index per Dataset

2.2

Average Dataset Index per dataset

Total Datasets

1

Total datasets for this author

Average FAIR Score

76.9%

Average FAIR Score per dataset

Total Citations

1

Total citations to the author's datasets

Total Mentions

0

Total mentions of the author's datasets

S-Index Interpretation

S-Index Over Time

Cumulative Citations Over Time

Cumulative Mentions Over Time

Datasets

Bird pollination syndrome is the plant’s adaptation to ornithophily, but nectarivorous birds are not so selective (Version: 3)

Many tropical plants are pollinated by birds and several bird phylogenetical lineages have specialised to a nectar diet. The long-assumed, intimate ecological and evolutionary relationship between ornithophilous plants and phenotypically specialised nectarivorous birds has nevertheless been questioned in recent decades, where such plant-pollinator interactions have been shown to be highly generalised.    In our study, we analysed two extensive interaction datasets: bird-flower and insect-flower interactions, both collected on Mt. Cameroon, West-Central Africa. We tested if 1) insects and birds interact with distinct groups of plants; 2) plants with a typical set of ornithophilous floral traits (i.e. bird pollination syndrome) interact mainly with birds; 3) birds favour plants with bird pollination syndrome; and 4) if and how the individual floral traits and plant level nectar production predict bird visitation.      Bird-visited plants were typically also visited by insects, while approximately half of the plants were visited by insects only. We confirmed the validity of the bird pollination syndrome hypothesis, as plants with bird-pollination syndrome traits were visited by birds at a higher rate and mostly hosted a lower frequency of visiting insects. However, these ornithophilous plants were not more attractive than the other plants for nectar-feeding birds. Nectar production per plant individual was a better predictor of bird visitation than any other floral trait traditionally related to the bird pollination syndrome. Our study thus demonstrated the highly asymmetrical relationship between ornithophilous plants and nectarivorous birds.

Authors

  • Chmel, Krystof ;
  • Ewome, Francis ;
  • Gómez, Guillermo ;
  • Klomberg, Yannick ;
  • Mertens, Jan ;
  • Tropek, Robert ;
  • Janeček, Štěpán
1 Citation0 Mentions77% FAIR2.2 Dataset Index
10.5061/dryad.xsj3tx9ffJune 2021