Format: ORAL

Valeska De Crdenas1, ystein H. Opedal2, Sissi Lozada-Gobilard1,2

1 Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia 2 Biodiversity Unit, Department of Biology Lund University, Sweden

Pollination syndromes refers to a set of flower characteristics, including flower structure, color, fragrance, and rewards, which have developed through interactions with a particular category of animal pollinators. The predictive power of pollination syndromes regarding actual plant-animal interactions has been constantly debated. Here we tested this prediction power in 30 plant species occurring along an altitudinal gradient (1000-4500m) in the tropical Andes of Bolivia. We measured flower traits, flower morphometry (size), signal (color, shape) and reward traits (nectar). In addition, we observed the pollinators (flower visitors that touched reproductive parts) corresponding to different pollinator guilds: bees, flies, wasps, beetles, butterflies and birds. Using the flower traits, we classified the plant species into a particular pollination syndrome. Later based on the most legitimate and abundant pollinators, we confirmed or rejected the predicted syndrome. Along the altitudinal gradient we expect to find different conditions related to both specialist and generalist strategies of pollination. If so, then we expect an accurate predictive power of the pollination syndromes in the specialist systems only.