Progresses of the international community to understand sunflower–pollinator interactions through multiscale approaches

Abstract

The first web conference on sunflower–pollinator interactions gathered the international community around a major topic for sunflower productivity and ecosystemic biodiversity. Insect-mediated pollination is important for increasing sunflower seed yield, but is dependent on environmental factors. Climate change can impact sunflower-pollinator interactions by influencing both plant and pollinator behavior. Natural or artificially elevated ambient temperatures appear to accelerate floret development and advance the timing of pollen presentation to coincide with pollinator activities. Drought showed no major effect on morphological traits such anther or corolla length, but dramatically reduced nectar and pollen productions. Flavonol-glycoside conjugates lower head transpiration thereby mitigating deleterious effects of abiotic stresses. Wild pollinators show fine scale preferences among sunflower varieties, likely due to the different resource focus of wild and managed honeybees. Agricultural practices such as planting flower strips to provide nesting sites for wild pollinators, or supplementing crop plots with hives, can have a positive effect on insect-mediated pollination efficiency and ensure optimal yields. All together, recent results on sunflower–pollinator interactions pave the way to develop varieties and corresponding cropping systems more favorable to pollinator biodiversity while maintaining high yields in the context of climate change.