Hurricane‐induced pollinator shifts in a tightly coadapted plant–hummingbird mutualism

A tightly coadapted plant-hummingbird mutualism in Dominica's Morne Trois Pitons National Park was disrupted by Hurricane Maria, leading to a shift from specialized pollination by the purple-throated carib (Eulampis jugularis) to a more generalized system involving other hummingbirds and the bananaquit (Coereba flaveola). The study found that while the purple-throated carib deposited the most pollen due to its morphological match with Heliconia flowers, other bird species also effectively pollinated Heliconia plants after the hurricane-induced population crash of the primary pollinator. This suggests that generalized pollinators can provide resilience in plant sexual reproduction following high-impact disturbances, challenging the notion that specialized mutualisms are evolutionary dead-ends. The research integrated bird visitation rates, pollen deposition data, and pollen transport analysis to quantify these shifts.

Schrøder, T. S. O., Gonçalves, F., Vollstädt, M. G. R., Zhang, T., Jensen, R. D., Tarazona‐Tubens, F. L., Kim, S., Galetti, M., Simmons, B. I., Kaiser‐Bunbury, C. N., Temeles, E. J., & Dalsgaard, B. (2024). Hurricane‐induced pollinator shifts in a tightly coadapted plant–hummingbird mutualism. New Phytologist, 244(1), 16–20. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19938