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Do frugivores exert selection on fruiting phenology? Potential scenarios across three plant populations of a Neotropical vine, Passiflora caerulea

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Abstract

Fruiting phenology is a critical aspect of plant fitness, as it is directly linked to the next-generation offspring delivery. Both abiotic and biotic factors presumably exert natural selection on plant phenology. Despite the role of climate in shaping fruiting phenology is well established, whether frugivores exert phenotypic selection on fruiting phenology has not yet been tested. We estimated the regime and magnitude of frugivore-mediated selection on fruiting phenology in three distant (> 500 km) populations of the Blue Passionflower (Passiflora caerulea) along one year. We measured phenological fruit traits (fruiting onset, fruiting peak, length of the fruiting season) and fruit crop size, and used animal fruit removal as a fitness component. We found highly variable fruiting phenologies between populations, yet phenological stages in lower latitudes were longer than in higher latitudes. One population showed a positive relationship between fruiting onset and fruiting peak among individuals, indicating that fruiting later in the season delayed the fruiting peak. Frugivores favored large fruit crop sizes in the three populations and early fruiting onsets in two populations. In two populations, frugivores selected favorable combinations of fruit crop size and fruiting peak (favoring plants with large crops and early fruiting peaks), as well as favorable combinations of fruiting peak and the length of the fruiting season (favoring plants with early fruiting peaks and extended fruiting seasons). Some degree of similarity in selection patterns among populations suggests that, despite strong geographic variation in climate and animal assemblage composition, some level of functional redundancy occurs in terms of phenotypic trait selection. Overall, our results show that fruiting phenology may be a highly variable life-history trait of plant populations, and support the idea that biotic interactors, conditional on heritable traits and selection pressures sustained over time, could potentially shape phenological fruiting characteristics.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Rafael Jiménez and Rodrigo Moreno Ten for providing field assistance. Bárbara Malagisi, Carmela Marín, Cecilia Morgan, Elián Guerrero, Gabriela F. Ruellán, Gustavo Herrera, Laura Haag, Paloma Borghello, and Renato A. García provided information on plant locations. Adam M. Siepielski provided insightful comments on the idea of the manuscript. This study was funded by Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (Project PICT-2017-0081 given to F.X.P). Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Fundación Miguel Lillo (Project Z-0048-1 given to M.O.) also provided partial funding. Two anonymous reviewers improved early versions of this manuscript.

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  1. Sección Ornitología, División Zoología Vertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de La Plata and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina

    Facundo X. Palacio & Diego Montalti

  2. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Paraje “El Pozo” 3000, S3001XAI, Santa Fe, Argentina

    J. Francisco Cataudela

  3. Fundación Miguel Lillo, Miguel Lillo 251, T4000JFE, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina

    Mariano Ordano

  4. Instituto de Ecología Regional, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Horco Molle, 4107, Yerba Buena, Argentina

    Mariano Ordano

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  1. Facundo X. Palacio
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  2. J. Francisco Cataudela
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  3. Diego Montalti
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  4. Mariano Ordano
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Correspondence to Facundo X. Palacio.

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Palacio, F.X., Cataudela, J.F., Montalti, D. et al. Do frugivores exert selection on fruiting phenology? Potential scenarios across three plant populations of a Neotropical vine, Passiflora caerulea. Evol Ecol 35, 555–574 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-021-10121-0

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