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Variability in bumblebee pollination buzzes affects the quantity of pollen released from flowers

Overview of attention for article published in Oecologia, November 2012
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (95th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (93rd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
1 news outlet
blogs
1 blog
twitter
1 X user
patent
1 patent
wikipedia
1 Wikipedia page

Citations

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85 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
174 Mendeley
Title
Variability in bumblebee pollination buzzes affects the quantity of pollen released from flowers
Published in
Oecologia, November 2012
DOI 10.1007/s00442-012-2535-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Paul A. De Luca, Luc F. Bussière, Daniel Souto-Vilaros, Dave Goulson, Andrew C. Mason, Mario Vallejo-Marín

Abstract

Buzz-pollination is a plant strategy that promotes gamete transfer by requiring a pollinator, typically bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), to vibrate a flower's anthers in order to extract pollen. Although buzz-pollination is widespread in angiosperms with over 20,000 species using it, little is known about the functional connection between natural variation in buzzing vibrations and the amount of pollen that can be extracted from anthers. We characterized variability in the vibrations produced by Bombus terrestris bumblebees while collecting pollen from Solanum rostratum (Solanaceae), a buzz-pollinated plant. We found substantial variation in several buzzing properties both within and among workers from a single colony. As expected, some of this variation was predicted by the physical attributes of individual bumblebees: heavier workers produced buzzes of greater amplitude. We then constructed artificial "pollination buzzes" that varied in three parameters (peak frequency, peak amplitude, and duration), and stimulated S. rostratum flowers with these synthetic buzzes to quantify the relationship between buzz properties and pollen removal. We found that greater amplitude and longer duration buzzes ejected substantially more pollen, while frequency had no directional effect and only a weak quadratic effect on the amount of pollen removed. These findings suggest that foraging bumblebees may improve pollen collection by increasing the duration or amplitude of their buzzes. Moreover, given that amplitude is positively correlated with mass, preferential foraging by heavier workers is likely to result in the largest pollen yields per bee, and this could have significant consequences for the success of a colony foraging on buzz-pollinated flowers.

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X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 174 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 4 2%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Serbia 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Unknown 167 96%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 33 19%
Researcher 31 18%
Student > Master 28 16%
Student > Bachelor 24 14%
Student > Doctoral Student 12 7%
Other 27 16%
Unknown 19 11%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 111 64%
Environmental Science 13 7%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 6 3%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 3 2%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 3 2%
Other 11 6%
Unknown 27 16%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 24. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 October 2022.
All research outputs
#1,395,474
of 23,543,207 outputs
Outputs from Oecologia
#158
of 4,285 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#12,286
of 281,461 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Oecologia
#2
of 31 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,543,207 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,285 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 281,461 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 31 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.