NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Assessment of interactions between nectarivorous birds and flowering plants to investigate pollination loss in Hawaiian forests

Case, Samuel B, Laramie WY

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The Fellow will investigate pollination loss in Hawaiian forests, which have experienced high rates of species extinction and invasion by non-native species. For instance, most native nectar-feeding birds in the Hawaiian Islands have gone extinct, and plants that depend on these birds for pollination may be at risk for extinction from the loss of their bird partners. The Fellow will closely examine bird-plant interactions, using film and 3D scans of bird bills and flower tube shapes, to predict the impacts of bird pollinator loss on Hawaiian plants. To broaden participation, the fellow will conduct surveys and analysis to understand and start to resolve barriers that LGTBQIA+ biologists face in STEM careers and involve native Hawaiians in the research. Pollination often depends on mutualistic interactions with nectar-feeding animals (hereafter nectarivores), in which nectarivores transfer pollen between plants while collecting the sugary reward. Nectarivores and plants may coevolve to exhibit matched functional traits, such as coupled bird bill and floral tube shapes, increasing the specificity and benefits of their interactions. When traits are mismatched, however, species may fail to interact, or interactions may negatively impact plants. Hawaiian lobelioids (Campanulaceae), which have coevolved with nectarivorous Hawaiian birds, may be pollination-limited due to bird species loss. Nevertheless, historic plant-pollinator interactions are largely unknown, and it is uncertain whether extant nectarivores (native and introduced) may potentially compensate for bird extinctions by maintaining pollination processes. Thus, a mechanistic model is needed for identifying interaction outcomes for plant-nectarivore species pairings. The Fellow will simulate interactions from three-dimensional (3D) digital models of birds and flowers, in order to investigate how trait-matching metrics derived in 3D can be linked to pollen transfer in wild-filmed interactions. The Fellow will then predict outcomes for potential extinct and extant interactions to estimate mutualism loss and validate models with tests of seed viability. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.