Abstract Plant traits show multiple degrees of variation, owing to different environmental conditions or genetic predisposition. Land-use intensification, caused by fertilization, grazing, and mowing changes the biotic and abiotic conditions of a plant’s environment. Land-use can have direct effects on plant traits, such as decreased flower height and size caused by grazing or mowing and enhanced vegetative growth upon fertilisation. Additionally, land-use can shape the plant community that indirectly affects inter or intraspecific competition for nutrition, space, and pollination for a plant individual. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the effects of land-use and associated changes in plant communities on the variation in floral morphology and rewards within and between populations. Floral traits for two common, self-incompatible meadow species – Ranunculus acris and Trifolium pratense , were recorded from semi-natural managed grasslands in Germany. Our study revealed that land-use intensity directly affected flower display size, which correlated with changes in pollen quantity and nectar sugar content. Variation in floral traits, however, varied primarily with changes in the surrounding plant community. Floral morphological traits showed lower intraspecific variation than floral reward traits. In plant-rich communities, both species increased floral display size, but this correlated with reduced pollen and nectar sugar production in R. acris and increased pollen and nectar sugar production in T. pratense , suggesting a species-specific modulation of floral traits that may have implications for plant–pollinator interactions and community-level pollination dynamics.
Bansal et al. (Thu,) studied this question.