PHD - Project (Ulrike Füssel, Ecological Botanical Garden of Bayreuth): The importance of flower odors for the pollination of Salix species and their role as crossing barriers (In cooperation with Dr. Gregor Aas, Ecological Botanical Garden, University of Bayreuth, Germany)

The genus Salix (Salicaceae) is a diocious, insect pollinated plant group with a high taxonomical and ecological diversity. From an evolutionary viewpoint it is interesting that crossing barriers in the genus are rather porous. However, the gene flow between species in natural population seems to be limited. 

Objectives of the project: 

• the identification of flower visitors at selected Salix species
• to analyze the gene flow in and between local populations in relation to the type of flower visitor
• to uncover the role of floral scent and pollen scent as putative cue factors for the ethological isolation in co-occurring species. 

To investigate pollen mediated gene flow fluorescent dyes will be used to trace pollen movements across plants in populations and to assess differences in visitation patterns of the pollinator guilds in co-occurring species. Based on the analysis of floral- and pollen odors we will try to answer the question if Salix species have species specific compounds that are responsible for the inter- and intra- specific gene flow.

This project is financially supported by the DFG (German Science Fundation - Graduate College 678)

_{Andreas Jürgens}