Oral Paper

         Ecology

Sniffing out the link between nitrogen and floral scent

Presenting Author
Janelle Bohey
Description
Climate change poses a threat to many plant species and plant-pollinator mutualisms because environmental change can alter floral traits essential for attracting pollinators, like floral scent. Temperature, drought, and nutrient availability have the potential to alter the chemistry and composition of floral scents, which may disrupt pollination and defense against seed predators. Temperature increases and changes in precipitation due to climate change are predicted to alter the availability of soil nitrogen via increased rates of nitrogen mineralization by soil microorganisms and increasing rates of atmospheric nitrogen deposition from human activity. Only a few studies to date have empirically tested how nitrogen availability influences floral scent emissions, and responses appear species-specific. More research is needed to understand the effect of nitrogen on floral volatile emissions, and the impact this may have on plant-pollinator mutualisms.  We tested how soil nitrogen availability affects floral scent in two subalpine species of Ipomopsis (I. aggregata and I. tenuituba) that serve as a model for studies of floral traits. We were especially interested in the effect of nitrogen addition on the nitrogenous compound indole in I. tenuituba, which is the primary attractant for hawkmoth pollinators. In this greenhouse experiment at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado, USA, we collected 20 plants of each species from natural populations, potted the plants in native soil and randomly assigned individuals to high or low nitrogen treatments. High nitrogen treatments received 0.5 g of ammonium nitrate applied weekly for 5 weeks during the growing season. Low nitrogen treatments received no additional nitrogen. We then measured floral scent, corolla length and width, maximum and minimum anther length, style length, flower number, nectar volume and sugar concentration, and inflorescence height. We used dynamic headspace sampling to collect floral scent from 1-5 flowers per plant during the day (09:00-13:00) and night (20:00-00:00) in addition to ambient air controls, and analyzed the samples using thermal desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Average volatile emissions per plant were compared using constrained ordination methods. Nitrogen availability affected daytime floral scent emissions of I. aggregata (P = 0.009), including a 56% increase in a dominant compound, the monoterpene α-pinene, in the high nitrogen treatment. In I. aggregata, higher nitrogen also increased inflorescence height by 22% and flower number by 71%. In I. tenuituba, higher nitrogen increased style length by 9% although there were no detected effects of nitrogen on floral scent or any of the other floral traits measured. Nitrogen had no detected effect on indole emissions, nighttime volatiles, corolla width and length, maximum and minimum anther length, and nectar volume and sugar concentration in either species. These results show that floral volatiles can respond to changes in soil nitrogen, but responses can differ even between closely related species. Future studies will examine the influence of soil microbes on this response to soil nitrogen.